in  2007  with  fund! 


iicrosQ- 


COMPULSORY  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE 
AND  CHILD  LABOR 


COMPULSORY  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE 
AND  CHILD  LABOR 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  REG- 
UUTIONS  COMPELLING  AHENDANCE  AND  LIMITING  THE 
UBOR  OF  CHILDREN  IN  A  SELECTED  GROUP  OF  STATES 


BY 
FOREST  CHESTER  ENSIGN 


Submitted  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements 

for   the    degree    of    Doctor    of    Philosophy, 

in   the   Faculty   of   Philosophy, 

Columbia  University 

1921 


LC13I 


«K6HAMQE 


CONTENTS 

Page 
INTRODUCTION 1 

CHAPTER  I 

ENGLISH  FOUNDATIONS 

Principles  common  to  American  state  school  systems — Compulsion 
almost  universal — Fundamental  conceptions  of  child  control  extend 
to  early  English  customs  and  laws — Significance  of  laws  of  Edward 
Ill-rrConnection  between  freedom  and  pauperism — Statute  of 
Labourers — Beginning  of  compulsory  employment — Movement  from 
country  to  town — All  children  of  poor  to  engage  in  labor — Attend- 
ance at  school  an  alternative — Gradual  development  of  taxation  for 
care  of  poor — Industrial  training  of  poor  children  compulsory — 
Machinery  of  Church  employed  in  providing  funds — Poor  laws  of 
Henry  VIII — Development  under  Elizabeth — Final  steps — Enforce- 
ment of  compulsory  employment  and  industrial  training — Literary 
education  in  time  of  Henry  VIII  and  Elizabeth — Principles  estab- 
lished by  1600 7 

CHAPTER  n 

THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 

Expansion  of  English  educational  traditions  in  America — Settlers 
around  Massachusetts  Bay — Granted  all  rights  of  other  English 
subjects — A  select  group-^Not  free  from  poverty  and  crime — 
English  customs  and  laws  controlling — Desire  to  utilize  labor  of 
children — Compulsory  employment  in  1641 — The  law  of  1642,  com- 
pulsory employment  and  compulsory  education — English  poor-laws 
duplicated — The  law  of  1647,  compulsory  schools — Support  of  early 
schools — Falling  standards — Education  in  Connecticut — Connecticut 
code  of  1700 — Revision  of  1701 — Economic  prosperity — Educational 
provisions  not  enforced 17 

CHAPTER  III 

EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD 
Close   of  first   and   opening  of   second  period   in   history   of   employ- 
ment and  education  of  children — Compulsory  education  not  stressed 
in  early  state  constitutions^rEducational  systems  resting  on  early  | 
laws  for  control   of  poor — New  use   for   children  in  England — In- 
dustrial conditions  in  America — Hamilton's  ideals  for  employment 


i 


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CONTENTS 


of  children — Care  of  mill  children — Samuel  Slater 's  Sunday  school — 
/  Development  of  factories — New  industrial  opportunities  for  children 
— David  Humphreys  and  the  education  of  mill  children — The  Con- 
necticut law  of  1813 — Organized  labor  begins  to  be  felt — Industrial- 
educational  problems  in  Massachusetts — Legislative  investigation  of 
1825 — Antagonism  of  employer  and  laborer — Investigation  by  New 
England  Association  of  farmers,  mechanics  and  other  working  men 
— ^James  G.  Carter  and  legislative  investigating  committee — The 
I  child  labor  law  of  1836 — Charity  idea  in  education — Organized  labor 
and  education  in  Pennsylvania^Place  of  pauper  school  in  Pennsyl- 
vania— Organized  labor  and  education  in  New  York — New  forces    .  30 

CHAPTER  IV 

MASSACHUSETTS 
The  State  Board  of  Education — Horace  Mann  its  first  secretary — 
Educational  conditions  met  by  Mann — Mann  not  especially  interest- 
ed in  factory  children — Operation  of  law  of  1836 — Mann  not  an 
advocate  of  compulsory  school  attendance — Inadequacy  of  means 
of  education — Local  school  committees  directed  to  enforce  attend- 
ance requirements,  1842 — Inadequacy  of  educational  statistics — 
Enactment  of  truancy  law,  1850 — First  general  compulsory  attend- 
ance law,  1852 — Failure  to  enforce  law  of  1852 — Mann's  successor 
in  office — Towns  required  to  provide  for  care  of  truants  and  de- 
linquents, 1862 — Towns  fail  to  meet  responsibility — State  funds 
withheld — Legislative  investigation,  1866 — Law  of  1866 — Eevision 
of  1867 — Henry  K.  Oliver  special  enforcing  officer — Difficulties  of 
enforcement — Creation  of  bureau  of  statistics  and  labor — Movement 
for  a  ten-hour  day — Compulsory  attendance  requirements  met  in 
evening  schools — Further  legislation  for  control  of  truancy — Lack 
of  harmony  between  labor  and  attendance  laws — Carrol  D.  Wright 
becomes  chief  of  bureau  of  labor  statistics,  1874 — His  attitude  to- 
wards law  enforcement — Larger  state  powers  in  law  enforcement — 
Child  labor  act  of  1878 — More  adequate  employment  certificate,  1888 
— Additional  restrictions  on  employment  of  children-^Poverty  no 
longer  grounds  for  exemption  from  school  attendance — Employment 
and  school  attendance  investigated  by  state  board  of  education — 
Legislation  following  board's  investigation — A  period  of  consolida- 
tion of  legislative  gains — Compulsory  medical  inspection  of  schools, 
first  in  United  States — Interest  in  industrial  education — Inquiry  of 
1906 — Recommendations  of  the  commission,  and  legislation  follow- 
ing— Reorganization  of  state  board  of  education — Part-time  classes 
and  continuation  schools — Compulsory  attendance  optional  with 
local  school  committees — State  board  of  labor  and  industries 
created,  1912 — Echoes  of  early  approval  of  child  labor — Recent 
changes  in  regulations — Contribution  of  Massachusetts     ....  48 


CONTENTS  vii 

CHAPTER  V 

CONNECTICUT 

Page 

Leads  in  state  enforcement  of  attendance  and  labor  laws — ^Earlier 
periods  not  unlike  Massachusetts — Organized  labor  not  so  important 
a  factor  in  later  development — Henry  Barnard's  educational  leader- 
ship— Law  of  1842 — Period  of  weak  state  organization — Legislative 
investigation  of  1844 — Advance  toward  state  control,  1845 — Beturn 
of  Henry  Barnard — His  attitude  toward  child  labor — Restrictions 
on  employment,  1855 — Civil  War  checks  educational  progress — State 
Board  of  Education  created,  1865 — Truant  law,  1865 — Significance 
of  law  of  1869 — Henry  M.  Cleveland  state  enforcing  agent — Agita- 
tion for  general  compulsory  attendance  law — Enactment  of  com- 
pulsory law,  1872 — Giles  Potter  becomes  state  agent — Methods  of 
enforcement — More  adequate  laws — Act  of  1886 — Larger  manufac- 
turers cooperating — Inadequate  schooling  certificate — Unsatisfactory 
attendance — Laws  of  1893  and  1895 — Relatively  high  rank  of  state 
in  educational  requirements — Cooperation  of  teachers  in  law  en- 
forcement— System  rounded  out  in  acts  of  1911  and  1913 — Inter- 
pretation of  the  state  board — Attendance — School  census — Employ- 
ment certificate — Present  enforcement — The  unemployed  child — 
Recognition  of  relationship  between  child  employment  and  school 
attendance 87 

CHAPTER  VI 

NEW  YORK 
Compulsory  education  in  poor-houses,  1831 — Delay  in  development 
of  public  school  system — Early  attitude  toward  employment  of 
children — Legislative  investigation  of  1830 — Attempts  to  secure 
legislation — Truancy  law  of  1853 — Compulsory  attendance  act  of 
1874 — Failure  to  enforce — Increase  of  child  labor  and  investigation 
of  1884 — Elbridge  T  Gerry  and  influence  of  philanthropic  forces — 
Child  labor  act  of  1886— Weakness  of  law  of  1886 — Granting  of 
working  papers  entrusted  to  local  boards  of  health — Report  of  the 
Reinhardt  commission — Mercantile  law,  1896 — Enforcement  by  local 
boards  of  health — Compulsory  attendance  act,  1894 — Administration 
of  attendance  law — Closer  union  of  forces  opposed  to  labor  of 
children — Organization  and  early  activity  of  New  York  Child  Labor 
Committee — Legislation  of  1903 — Advanced  position  of  New  York 
state — Difficulties  in  law  enforcement — Political  aspects — Advances 
of  1907,  1908 — Enforcement — Failure  of  school  officials  to  co- 
operate— Failure  of  school  and  employment  officials  to  cooperate — 
A  period  of  consolidation — Permanent  census — Factory  investigat- 
ing commission — Reorganization  of  department  of  labor — More 
efficient     child     labor    regulations — The     Industrial     Commission — 


viii  CONTENTS 

Page 
General  permanent  census  law — Compulsory  military  and  physical 
education — Compulsory  evening  and  continuation  schools — Summary 
of  regulations  concerning  education  and  employment  of  children — 
Enforcement  in  New  York  City — The  attendance  bureau — Enforce- 
ment in  state  as  a  whole — Progress  towards  state  supervision  of 
attendance l^^ 

CHAPTER  VII 

PENNSYLVANIA 
Among  last  of  northern  states  to  provide  for  compulsory  education 
and  to  restrict  employment — Fight  for  free  schools-^The  pauper 
school  law — Opposition  to  free  schools  by  German  element — Early 
discussion  of  non-attendance — Legislative  investigation  of  child 
labor,  1837 — Child  labor  law  of  1848 — Failure  to  enforce — Superin- 
tendent Wiekersham  slow  to  favor  compulsory  attendance — Great 
number  of  children  out  of  school — Child  labor  law  of  1887 — Agita- 
tion for  compulsory  school  attendance — Attendance  law  of  1895 — 
Further  restrictions  of  child  labor — Compulsory  attendance  law  of 
1901 — Inadequacy  of  restrictions  on  child  labor — National  and  State 
Child  Labor  Committees  enter  field  in  1904 — Law  of  1905 — Law  de- 
clared unconstitutional — Eeturn  to  old  conditions — Legislation  of 
1909,  result  of  union  of  all  forces  opposed  to  child  labor — Interests 
of  labor  and  education  served  in  new  legislation — Revised  code — 
Creation  of  state  board  of  education — Provision  made  for  vocation- 
al education — Department  of  labor  and  industry  created — Measures 
of  1915  rounding  out  system  of  industrial  education — Adequate  child 
labor  legislation — Compulsory  continuation  schools  established — 
Success  of  continuation  education — Operation  of  system  in  city  of 
Pittsburgh — Beginning  of  state  enforcement  of  attendance — New 
system  growing  in  favor  throughout  the  state 170 

CHAPTER  Vin 

WISCONSIN 

Wisconsin  most  successful  in  adapting  education  to  changing  in- 
dustrial conditions — Establishment  of  education  under  constitution 
— School  officials  disturbed  by  poor  attendance — Compulsory  attend- 
ance laws  feared — Attempt  to  secure  compulsory  law — Investiga- 
tion authorized — Argument  against  compulsory  measures — Law  en- 
acted, 1879 — Child  labor  legislation,  1877 — Creation  of  bureau  of 
labor  statistics — Factory  inspection  undertaken,  1885 — Bennet  com- 
pulsory school  and  attendance  law — Opponents  of  Bennet  law  enter 
politics — Repeal  of  law,  1891 — Decade  of  inactivity — Investigation 
of  child  labor  situation — More  adequate  attendance  legislation — 
Further    restriction    of    employment — Movement    to-w^ard    industrial 


CONTENTS  ix 

Page 
education — Special  commission  to  study  needs — System  of  industrial 
education  establij^hed — Organization — The  continuation  schools — 
Apprenticeship  system — Work  of  Industrial  Commission — Present 
provisions  of  child  labor  laws — Enforcement — Operation  in  Mil- 
waukee— Attempt  at  state  supervision  of  attendance — Service  per- 
formed by  Wisconsin 203 


CHAPTER  IX 


^/ 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 

Legislative  investigations  as  basis  of  compulsory  measures — 
Changes  in  attitude  toward  child — Prime  movers  for  protection  of 
children — Some  of  the  retarding  influences — Exemption  from  re- 
quirements of  attendance  laws — Compulsory  health  provisions — 
Working  papers — Direct  state  enforcement — Federal  cooperation — 
Penalties — Decrease  in  illiteracy — Part-time  schools — Outlook — Ad- 
vance from  early  English  foundations 231 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 256 


INTRODUCTION 

Our  national  experiences  during  the  years  1917-20  have 
served  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  education.  It  was  found 
that  in  the  emergencies  of  war  the  man  with  developed  mind 
and  skilled  hand,  the  man  whom  the  schools  had  trained, 
could  adjust  himself  readily  to  new  requirements.  In  factory 
and  laboratory,  in  camp  and  on  the  battlefield,  he  demonstrated 
his  superiority  over  those  whose  opportunity  for  systematic 
training  had  been  narrowly  restricted  or  altogether  lacking. 
It  was  also  found  that  a  dangerously  large  proportion  of  our 
young  men  had  arrived  at  maturity  with  so  little  learning  as 
to  make  it  necessary  to  classify  them,  for  army  purposes,  as 
illiterate. 

The  federal  census,  loosely  taken  and  inaccurate  as  it  is  ad- 
mitted to  be,  shows  that  seven  of  every  one  hundred  of  the 
population  above  ten  years  of  age  are  absolutely  illiterate,  un- 
able to  write  their  names  or  read  the  simplest  print.^  The 
report  of  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  United  States  Army, 
based  upon  an  examination  of  the  selected  body  of  men  con- 
stituting the  draft  army,  is  still  more  disquieting,  showing  as 
it  does  that  one  man  out  of  every  four  is  unable  to  read  and 
write  in  English.^  Some  comfort  can  be  derived  from  the 
fact  that  of  those  classified  as  illiterates,  14.2  per  cent  are 
negroes  and  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  remainder  for- 
eign born.    But  at  the  best,  the  conditions  revealed  are  serious, 


1.  United  States  Census,  1910.  For  comparative  table  see  Monroe, 
Cyclopedia  of  Education,  *  *  Illiteracy. '  * 

2.  Education  of  Illiterates ;  Hearing  before  the  Committee  on  Education, 
House  of  Representatives,  Feb.  14-15,  1919;  pp.  25-26.  The  report  covers 
the  examination  of  more  than  one  and  one-half  million  men,  in  twenty-eight 
training  stations  vridely  distributed  throughout  the  country.  All  men  not 
able  to  **read  and  understand  newspapers  and  write  letters  home,''  a  total 
of  24.9  per  cent,  were  classed  as  illiterate.  The  War  Department,  com- 
menting upon  the  results  of  the  examinations,  says:  **The  extent  of  illit- 
eracy among  the  drafted  men  is  a  striking  fact.  The  figures,  however,  are 
not  an  exact  measure  of  the  fact.  It  is  obvious  that  without  a  more  definite 
measure  of  illiteracy  ....  any  detailed  statements  are  impossible;  it  is 
equally  obvious  that  these  measures,  though  rough  and  varied,  do  indicate 
general  conditions  of  serious  public  concern.'' 


2  SCHOOL  lATTENDl^NOE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

and  have  brought  deserved  criticism  upon  systems  of  educa- 
tion which,  in  the  final  analysis,  must  be  held  responsible. 

Every  state  in  the  Union  has  established  a  more  or  less 
elaborate  system  of  free  public  education.  Nearly  all  have 
enacted  laws  requiring  children  to  attend  school  for  various 
periods,  but  it  is  commonly  recognized  that  in  by  far  the  larger 
proportion  of  states  the  so-called  compulsory  education  laws, 
usually  administered  by  local  officials,  are  at  best  only  partially 
enforced.  Yet  the  revelations  of  the  draft  came  as  a  distinct 
shock  to  the  people  at  large  who  cherished  the  belief  that  no- 
where else  in  the  world  could  be  found  a  citizenship  with  a 
higher  level  of  intelligence  and  enlightenment.  It  may  be 
assumed,  then,  that  against  illiteracy  there  will  be  waged 
systematic  warfare,  a  warfare  in  the  interests  of  democratic 
government,  waged  by  a  people  conscious  of  the  necessity  to 
win,  aware  that  only  through  compulsory  measures  can  the 
masses  be  saved  from  ignorance. 

Since  the  war  has  revealed,  also,  a  serious  lack  of  skilled 
workmen,  of  those  prepared  to  undertake  the  specific  tasks, 
mechanical  and  scientific,  which  the  occasion  demanded,  it 
may  be  assumed  that  all  phases  of  vocational  education  will 
receive  attention,  that  continuation  schools  for  workers  will 
be  established,  that  the  labor  of  youth  will  be  more  severely  re- 
stricted and  that  attendance  upon  the  means  of  education  will 
be  enforced  under  state  or  even  national  authority.  But  old 
customs  and  old  machinery  of  administration  cannot  be  swept 
away  and  a  new  order  created.  That  which  the  future  is  to 
accomplish  must  be  built  upon  the  foundations  already  laid 
in  the  experiences  of  the  past. 

The  history  of  the  compulsory  education  of  children  and 
the  regulation  of  their  employment  in  the  United  States  may 
be  divided  roughly  into  three  periods.  Through  the  first  period 
there  extended  the  colonial  conception  of  education.  The 
children  of  the  poor  were  conceded  the  rudiments  of  learning, 
but  labor  was  regarded  as  altogether  desirable  and  both  its 
moral  and  economic  values  were  stressed.  During  the  latter 
part  of  the  period,  in  the  second  and  third  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  while  the  value  and  necessity  of  child  labor 
remained  unquestioned,  save  by  the  relatively  feeble  organiza- 


INTRODUCTION  3 

tions  of  working  men,  there  was  a  growing  agitation  for 
such  a  limitation  of  employment  as  would  enable  children  to 
acquire  the  elementary  education  to  which  all,  theoretically, 
believed  them  entitled.  The  second  period  begins  toward  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  various  forces  began 
to  recognize  their  common  interest  in  the  child  and  to  unite 
in  seeking  to  secure  for  him  certain  rights  through  legislation. 
There  followed  half-hearted  measures,  emasculated  by  those 
who  regarded  any  interference  with  parental  control  over 
children  as  undemocratic,  or  jockeyed  out  of  the  possibility 
of  effective  enforcement  by  designing  men  who  were  profiting 
by  the  unrestricted  labor  of  children.  Gradually,  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  century,  laws  in  the  interests  of  childhood  pass  into 
a  third  stage.  The  state  began  to  discover  its  own  power  and 
to  be  more  keenly  aware  of  its  responsibility.  Individuals  and 
organizations  learned  how  to  cooperate.  Practical  students  of 
social  conditions  devised  methods  of  securing  measures  that 
could  be  enforced.  Labor  oriented  itself  and  its  voice  was  heard 
with  increasing  respect.  Employers  found  that  the  labor  of  ' 
young  children  was  not  profitable  after  all,  and  finally  a  be- 
ginning was  made  towards  the  establishment  of  systems  of 
education  that  recognized  the  industrial  and  social  needs  of 
children.  '^ 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  study  to  trace  in  some  detail  the 
development  of  legislation  for  thfe  control  and  compulsory 
education  of  children  from  its  inception  in  the  English  statutes 
for  the  restraint  and  industrial  training  of  the  children  of  the 
poor  to  its  expression  in  the  elaborate  systems  of  universal, 
obligatory  education  with  the  accompanying  elimination  of 
child  labor  in  the  most  progressive  American  states. 

From  the  time  of  Plato  to  the  present,  discriminating  states- 
men have  recognized  the  importance  of  education  both  as  a 
stabilizing  and  as  a  selective  agency.  Though  compulsory 
attendance  upon  the  means  of  education  was  most  perfectly 
developed  in  the  most  autocratic  state  of  the  modern  world, 
those  whose  political  ideal  is  ''liberty  under  law"  believe  that 
there  can  be  no  real  liberty,  no  true  democracy  without  educa- 
tion, free,  universal,  compulsory  for  every  citizen.  The  most 
hopeful  symptom  in  the  present  industrial  and  social  crisis  is 


4    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

the  supreme  faith  which  all  factions  rest  in  education.  Be- 
yond doubt,  extensive  educational  programs,  both  state  and 
national,  are  imminent.  Since  these  programs,  determining 
the  educational  and  industrial  policies  of  the  future,  must  rest 
upon  the  educational  and  industrial  practices  of  the  past,  an 
historical  survey  of  the  process  by  which  the  state  gradually 
assumed  control  and  direction  of .  children 's  lives  must  have 
both  interest  and  value. 

The  limits  and  purposes  of  this  study  forbid  the  examination 
of  the  laws  relative  to  compulsory  education  and  the  restriction 
of  the  labor  of  children  in  all  the  states.  It  seems  impracti- 
cable even  to  take  a  sampling  of  such  laws  and  administrative 
policies  characterizing  the  principal  geographic  regions  of  the 
Union.  The  section  dealing  with  the  colonial  period  is  limited 
to  a  few  of  the  more  populous  colonies  of  the  North,  colonies 
in  which  the  education  of  the  children  of  common  folk  was 
especially  stressed.  Industrial  conditions  of  great  interest 
prevailed  in  the  South,  and  the  lives  of  working  children  were 
directed  by  laws  of  much  the  same  character  as  those  pre- 
vailing at  the  time  in  England.^  Here,  however,  the  Puritan 
zeal  for  literary  education  among  the  poor  had  no  counter- 
part. Industrial  life  began  to  be  modified  by  negro  slavery 
before  distinctively  provincial  ideals  could  develop.  State 
educational  systems  did  not  thrive  as  in  the  North,  and  the 
education  of  the  masses  did  not  become  a  vital  problem  until 
after  the  Civil  War. 

Again,  in  the  early  national  period,  the  study  has  been 
narrowly  restricted  to  a  small  group  of  states  that  developed 
relatively  large  manufacturing  interests  and  thus  came  early 
to  face  the  serious  problems  of  child  labor.  In  the  more  de- 
tailed discussion  of  particular  states,  an  arbitrary  selection 
was  made  of  a  small  group  of  states,  each  one  of  which  has 
made  some  peculiar  and  significant  advance  in  some  phase  of 
its  regulation  of  school  attendance  and  employment.  The 
states  chosen  are  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Wisconsin.  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
are  included  partly  because  they  best  illustrate  the  develop- 

3.  See  Jernegan,  ^'Compulsory  Education  in  the  Southern  Colonies,** 
School  Eeview,  June,  1919,  pp.  405-425. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

ment  in  America  oi  the  old  English  customs  as  modified  by 
Puritan  ideals.  In  these  two  states  manufacturing  was  early 
under  way  and  the  conflict  between  education  and  industry 
was  first  recognized.  Massachusetts,  as  a  colony,  not  only 
enacted  the  first  compulsory  education  and  compulsory  school 
laws  in  America  and  sought  first  to  control  the  labor  of  chil- 
dren, but  throughout  the  national  period  she  has  usually  been 
a  leader  in  the  several  stages  of  advancement  in  legislation 
and  administration.  Connecticut  was  the  first  state  to  accept 
definitely  the  policy  of  state*"  rather  than  local  administration 
of  school  attendance  laws;  more  clearly,  too,  than  any  other 
state,  she  has  recognized  the  intimate  relations  of  child  labor 
and  school  attendance.  New  York,  for  obvious  reasons,  must 
be  considered  in  such  a  study  as  this.  Here  the  fight  for  and 
a^gainst  the  child  has  been  waged  on  a  large  scale.  The  prob- 
lems of  child  labor  have  been  included  within  a  relatively 
brief  space,  and  in  recent  years  the  legislation  in  behalf  of 
working  children  has  been  especially  significant.  Finally, 
Wisconsin  and  Pennsylvania  were  chosen  because  first  to 
establish  state  systems  of  compulsory  continuation  schools  for 
children  employed  in  certain  types  of  industry.  These  states 
are  not  unique  among  the  sisterhood  of  states  except  that  they 
have  advanced  one  step  further  than  the  rest  in  the  develop- 
ment of  universal  compulsory  education.  The  same  forces 
which  made  possible  their  advanced  educational  programs  are 
working  everyAvhere  and  are  clearly  manifested  in  a  score  of 
other  states. 

In  gathering  materials  for  this  monograph,  recourse  was  had 
to  original  sources  so  far  as  they  were  available,  but  other 
sources  were  drawn  upon  freely.  In  the  section  dealing  with 
conditions  in  England,  Sir  George  Nicholls*  interpretation  of 
the  English  Poor  Law  was  extremely  suggestive.  The  chief 
sources  consulted  in  preparing  the  section  on  early  colonial 
laws  and  procedure  were  the  colonial  and  town  records,  col- 
lections of  various  historical  societies,  and  recognized  author- 
ities on  American  colonial  history.  Laws,  committee  reports, 
reports  of  state  officials,  reports  and  discussions  of  philan- 
thropic and  educational  organizations,  have  been  widely  con- 
sulted in  gathering  data  for  the  later  portions  of  the  study. 


6    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

While  certain  laws  enacted  subsequent  to  the  year  1917  have 
been  used  to  indicate  the  direction  of  modern  thought  relative 
to  the  labor  and  education  of  children,  no  attempt  has  been 
made  to  include  in  the  study  the  mass  of  legislation,  much  of 
it  necessarily  temporary  in  character,  called  forth  by  the  war 
or  by  conditions  immediately  following  it.  In  order  that  he 
might  gain  some  first  hand  knowledge  of  the  questions  dis- 
cussed, and  that  he  might  verify  or  correct  some  of  the  im- 
pressions gained  from  other  sources,  the  writer  visited  each  of 
the  five  states  used  to  illustrate  the  development  of  modern 
methods  of  controlling  the  education  and  labor  of  children. 

The  writer  regrets  that  it  has  not  been  possible  to  present 
in  the  form  of  definite  statistics  more  adequate  evidence  as  to 
the  operation  of  the  various  laws  regulating  the  attendance 
at  school  and  the  employment  of  children.  Unfortunately  the 
earlier  reports  of  state  departments  of  education,  bureaus  of 
labor,  legislative  committees  and  other  bodies  that  might  be 
expected  to  furnish  statistical  materials,  were  not  presented 
in  such  a  way  as  to  enable  the  student  to  secure  reliable  data. 
Indeed,  in  many  states  educational  statistics  are  so  treated  at 
the  present  time  as  to  obscure  the  data  essential  to  a  proper 
study  of  attendance  and  employment. 

It  is  not  possible  for  the  writer  to  acknowledge  except  in  a 
general  way  his  indebtedness  to  the  great  number  of  education- 
al and  labor  officials  through  whose  courtesy  much  valuable 
information  was  made  available.  He  is  under  special  obliga- 
tions, however,  to  Dean  William  F.  Russell,  of  the  State  Univer- 
sity of  Iowa,  who  read  the  manuscript  and  made  valuable 
suggestions;  to  Professor  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay  for  direc- 
tions and  advice  in  the  treatment  of  the  problem  of  child 
labor;  to  Professor  George  D.  Strayer,  in  whose  seiirtnar  the 
original  outline  was  criticised  and  discussed,  and  to  Professor 
Paul  Monroe,  for  guidance  in  research  and  organization. 


CHAPTER  I 

ENGLISH  FOUNDATIONS 

Through  the  heterogeneous  systems  of  education  to  be  found 
in  the  various  states  of  the  Union  run  certain  common  princi- 
ples. Most  nearly  universal  is  the  conception  that  the  state 
must  offer  to  every  child  such  educational  opportunities  as  will 
enable  him  to  become  an  intelligent  citizen,  prepared  to  main- 
tain himself  and  those  who  may  be  dependent  upon  him. 
Scarcely  less  universal  is  the  principle  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  state  to  compel  the  child  to  accept  such  educational 
opportunity. 

It  must  be  granted  that  in  certain  extensive  sections  of  the 
country  enforcement  of  laws  providing  for  the  education  of 
children  and  the  restriction  of  their  labor  is  not  seriously 
undertaken.  Even  in  the  most  progressive  states,  adequate 
legislation  and  effective  administration  are  of  comparatively 
recent  origin.  But  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  government 
forming  the  basis  of  our  modern  laws  of  child  control  are  very 
old,  reaching  back,  by  way  of  the  early  English  settlements 
in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  to  customs  and  laws  pre- 
vailing in  England  in  the  period  of  Elizabeth  and  before. 

It  is  customary  to  think  of  modern  compulsory  education 
as  having  its  origin  in  Germany  in  the  period  of  the  Protest- 
ant Reformation.  Certainly  the  principle  of  universal  learn- 
ing in  the  interests  of  the  individual  as  well  as  the  state  is 
announced  definitely  by  Luther.  Calvin  accepted  this  principle, 
applying  it  particularly  to  the  individual,  who,  in  the  process 
of  saving  his  soul,  must  come  into  relationship  with  God  large- 
ly through  the  printed  word.  The  Puritans  who  settled  around 
Massachusetts  Bay  in  the  decade  following  the  year  1628  were 
staunch  Calvinists.  They  brought  with  them  the  austere  con- 
victions of  their  leader,  an  exalted  conception  of  the  value  of 
the  Bible,  and  the  determination  that  every  child,  as  a  part  of 
his  religious  training,  must  be  taught  to  read.    But  before  they 


8    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

were  Puritans,  these  men  were  Englishmen.  Long  before  the 
religious  conception  arose  which  demanded  for  each  child  an 
elementary  literary  education  for  his  souFs  sake,  there  had 
arisen  an  economic  necessity  which  demanded  for  him  an  in- 
dustrial education  for  his  body^s  sake.  It  will  be  the  main 
purpose  of  this  chapter  to  demonstrate  the  following  theses : 

1.  That  before  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  England 
had  developed  a  well  defined  policy  of  providing  industrial 
training  or  education  for  the  children  of  the  working  classes. 

2.  That  the  training  or  industrial  education  of  such  chil- 
dren Avas  provided  for  by  statute  and  was  compulsory. 

3.  That  the  expense  of  such  training  or  education  might  be 
met  by  public  taxation. 

It  is  useless  to  attempt  to  trace  compulsory  education  to  the 
lav/s  of  Alfred  the  Great.  Scholar  and  devoted  servant  of  his 
people  though  he  was,  his  wish  that  the  youth  of  England 
might  all  be  set  to  learning  was  apparently  never  expressed 
in  statute,^  though  prominent  historians  are  fond  of  attribut- 
ing to  him  a  law  or  **doom''  enjoining  all  freemen  to  send 
their  sons  to  school.^  Probably  what  Alfred  did  for  education 
had  permanent  value.  It  is  certain  that  by  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century  schools  were  abundant  in  England,  but 
they  were  attended  by  a  very  highly  selected  group,  with  only 
an  occasional  exceptional  lad  from  the  lower  orders  of  society.^ 
Apparently  the  masses  remained  practically  unschooled  until 
the  philanthropic  movement  of  the  eighteenth  century,  yet  it 
is  precisely  to  this  class  that  we  must  look  to  discover  in  its 
slow  advance  toward  economic  freedom  that  principle  of  state 
control  which  made  universal  education  possible. 

The  reign  of  Edward  III,  1327-1377,  roughly  marks  a  turn- 
ing point  in  industrial  and  social  England.  The  life  of  the 
common  man  in  the  thirteenth  century  was  hard  and  uncertain. 
The  feudal  system  was  breaking  down.  Men  were  securing  a 
larger  degree  of  personal  freedom.  Many  of  the  more  aggres- 
sive and  turbulent,  released  from  old  restraints,  had  become 
outlaws,  a  constant  menace  to  property  and  life.*    Serfs  freed 

1.  Leach,  The  Schools  of  Medieval  Englandf  p.  24  f. 

2.  For  example,  Hume,  History  of  England,  Vol.  VI,  p.  107  f. 

3.  Leach,  op.  cit.,  p.  206. 

4.  NichoUs,  History  of  the  English  Poor  Laws,  1860,  I,  23. 


ENGLISH  FOUNDATIONS  9 

from  vassalage  could  no  longer  turn  to  kindly  authority  in 
case  of  need.  Pauperism  arose,  vagabondage  became  common, 
the  lanes  and  highways  of  England  were  filled  with  an  un- 
employed and  dangerous  rabble.  Laws  of  terrible  severity^ 
had  failed  to  control  the  growing  evils  arising  from  changing 
conditions.  **It  is  a  great  law  of  social  development,"  says 
Arnold  Toynbee,  **that  the  movement  from  slavery  to  freedom 
is  also  a  movement  from  security  to  insecurity  of  maintenance. 
There  is  a  clear  connection  between  the  growth  of  freedom 
and  the  growth  of  pauperism;  it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say 
that  the  latter  is  the  price  we  pay  for  the  former."* 

In  an  attempt  to  protect  society  and  to  control  the  ever  in- 
creasing floating  population  there  was  enacted  the  famous 
** Statute  of  Labourers,"^  which,  besides  providing  for  the 
rigorous  control  of  vagrants,  both  *4usty"  and  ** impotent," 
fixed  wages,  regulated  prices  of  commodities,  and  ordered  that 
all  men  and  women  under  sixty  years  of  age,  not  craftsmen, 
landholders,  tradesmen,  or  regularly  employed,  should  *^  serve 
him  which  so  shall  require,  and  take  only  the  wages,  livery, 
meed,  or  salary  accustomed  to  be  given  in  the  places  where 
he  oweth  to  serve." 

The  authors  of  this  measure  evidently  proceeded  on  the 
assumption  that  there  was  sufficient  employment  at  hand  for 
every  able-bodied  man  who  was  willing  to  work;  that  those 
unwilling  to  work  but  able  to  do  so,  might  be  forced  to  be- 
come self-supporting  by  restraining  them  from  travel  and  mak- 
ing it  illegal  for  anyone  to  give  them  alms ;  and  that  the  help- 
less or  ** impotent"  poor  should  be  maintained  by  the  church 
or  by  individual  charity.  Here  is  found  compulsory  employ- 
ment, but  with  no  specific  mention  of  children. 

Under  Edward's  successor,  state  control  of  industry  was  ad- 
vanced still  further.  In  the  fourteenth  century  as  now,  labor 
was  being  drawn  from  the  country  to  the  town,  tempted  by 
the  higher  wages  commanded  by  the  skilled  craftsmen.  The 
ranks  of  labor  were  greatly  depleted  at  this  time  by  the  plague 
which   swept   away   a   considerable   portion   of   the   working 


5.  IS  Edw.  I;  2  Edw.  Ill;  5  Edw.  III. 

C.  The  Industrial  Bevolution  in  England,  p.  95. 

7.  S3  Edw.  Ill  (1360). 


10   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

population.  As  a  check  to  the  movement  cityward,  the  landed 
gentry  secured  the  passage  of  a  law  designed  to  control  young 
children,  requiring: 

**That  he  or  she,  which  use  to  labour  at  the  Plough  and  Cart 
or  other  Labour  or  Service  of  Husbandry  till  they  be  of  the 
Age  of  twelve  years,  that  from  thenceforth  they  shall  abide 
at  the  same  Labour,  without  being  put  to  any  Mystery  or 
Handicraft/ "« 

It  appears  that  about  this  time  the  schools,  now  abundant 
throughout  England,®  were  drawing  an  appreciable  number  of 
boys  of  the  working  classes  away  from  the  farms.  The  land- 
holders were  deeply  concerned  at  this  further  depletion  of  the 
ranks  of  their  toilers,  and  the  Commons,  in  1391,  petitioned 
the  king  to  require  that  **for  the  safety  and  honor  of  the  free- 
men of  this  realm,**  no  child  of  the  villein  class  should  be  per- 
mitted to  attend  school.^^  King  Richard,  happily,  did  not 
grant  this  request.  The  grievance  persisted,  however,  and  the 
matter  came  before  his  successor,  Henry  IV.  Henry  was  un- 
Avilling  to  exclude  children  of  humble  parentage  from  school, 
yet  he  recognized  the  claims  of  the  landholders  and  evidently 
shared  the  apprehensions  of  the  Commons  as  to  the  movement 
to  the  towns.  He  therefore  confirmed  the  legislation  in  con- 
trol of  children,  requiring  further  that  no  parent  not  possessed 
of  land  or  rent  to  the  value  of  twenty  shillings  should  appren- 
tice his  child  to  any  craft  or  other  labor  within  any  city  or 
borough  in  the  realm,  but  should  set  him  at  some  other  em- 
ployment. But  to  this  severe  regulation  the  far-sighted  king 
or  his  advisers  added  a  most  significant  alternative: 

*' Provided  always.  That  every  Man  or  Woman,  of  what  Es- 
tate or  Condition  that  he  be,  shall  be  free  to  set  their  Son  or 
Daughter  to  take  learning  at  any  manner  of  School  that 
pleaseth  them  within  the  Realm.*'" 

The  significance  of  the  closing  paragraph  of  this  statute  is 
apparent.  Compulsory  employment  of  children,  so  character- 
istic of  New  England  two  and  a  half  centuries  later,  was  al- 
ready clearly  established.    Now  for  the  first  time  appears  legal 

8.  12  Bich.  II,  c  4,  (1388). 

9.  Leach,  English  Schools  at  the  Eeformation,  pp.  7-58. 

10.  Be  Montmorency,  The  Progress  of  Education  in  England,  1904,  p.  27. 

11.  7  Henry  IV,  c  17  (1405). 


ENGLISH  FOUNDATIONS  11 

recognition  of  the  right  of  the  child,  even  of  most  humble 
birth,  to  such  education  as  may  be  available.  Further,  attend- 
ance at  school  was  made  a  legal  alternative  for  the  regular 
employment  required  by  the  older  law.^^ 

In  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  the  laws  intended 
to  prevent  vagabondage  and  to  stabilize  industry  were  further 
elaborated.  The  great  statutes  of  Henry  VIII,  especially,  must 
have  been  given  careful  consideration  by  the  most  expert 
lawyers  of  the  time.^^ 

Affecting  children  specifically,  was  a  provision  giving  local 
authorities  power  to  take  up  all  between  the  ages  of  five  and 
thirteen  years  who  might  be  found  begging  or  in  idleness,  and 
to  apprentice  them  to  masters  in  husbandry  or  crafts,  that 
they  might  be  taught  to  gain  their  own  livelihood  when  they 
should  become  of  age.  Other  provisions  in  these  statutes,  of 
importance  in  this  discussion,  but  affecting  children  less  direct- 
ly, are  those  relating  to  the  raising  of  funds  for  the  care  and 
employment  of  the  poor.  Here  the  church  parish  became  the 
unit  and  the  church  and  town  officials  the  administrative 
agents.  All  contributions  were  at  first  voluntary,  and  only 
very  gradually  did  this  system  give  way  to  taxation. 

Ever  since  it  had  become  firmly  established,  the  church  had 
been  the  great  organized  unit  of  society  in  all  forms  of  chari- 
table work.  From  the  beginning  it  had  been  regarded  not  only 
as  a  duty  but  as  a  privilege  to  minister  to  the  needs  of  ** God's 
poor."  It  had  regularly  set  aside  a  considerable  portion  of 
its  revenues  for  this  purpose,  and  on  the  continent,  at  least 
as  early  as  the  eighth  century,  secular  law  had  supplemented 
church  canons  in  making  payments  to  this  end  obligatory.^* 


12.  There  appear  to  be  no  reliable  data  as  to  the  extent  to  which  boys  of 
the  lower  classes  were  drawn  into  the  schools.  Tawney,  The  Agrarian 
Prohlem  in  the  Sixteenth  Century,  p.  134,  finds  that  sons  of  yeomen  and 
artisans  were  in  the  grammar  schools  of  the  sixteenth  century.  He  observes 
that  at  the  beginning  of  that  century  ' '  the  upper  classes  have  not  yet  begun 
to  covet  education  for  themselves  sufficiently  to  withhold  it  from  the  poor." 
It  seems  fairly  certain  that  the  ^'poor'*  in  whose  interests  many  of  the 
earlier  educational  foundations  were  established  were  not  of  the  peasant  or 
yeoman  classes,  but  rather  of  the  gentler  born  who  were  not  rich  enough  to 
jpatronize  more  expensive  schools.  See  Dobbs,  Education  and  Social  Move- 
ments, p.  91 ;  also  Leach,  op.  cit.,  p.  109. 

13.  SS  Henry  VIII,  c  12  (1530)  ;  27  Henry  VIII,  c  SS. 

14.  Ashley,  English  Economic  History,  p.  307. 


12   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

In  England  in  the  eleventh  century,  one-third  of  the  tithes  of 
the  church  had  been  devoted  to  the  poor  under  the  legislative 
sanction  of  Ethelred  and  his  Witan.^^.  Though  these  laws  had 
probably  been  neglected  and  forgotten  long  before  industrial 
changes  had  made  poverty  a  subject  of  state  concern,  the 
church,  more  particularly  the  monasteries,  remained  the  princi- 
pal alms-giving  institution  up  to  the  Reformation.  But  even 
before  Henry  suppressed  the  monasteries,  the  established 
means  of  ministering  to  the  poor  had  become  inadequate.^® 
In  1392  it  was  made  obligatory  upon  every  parish  church  to 
set  aside  annually  a  suitable  sum  for  the  relief  of  needy  parish- 
ioners.^^ The  poor  laws  of  Henry  VIII  set  up  more  detailed 
regulations,  made  justices  of  the  peace  responsible  for  the  dis- 
tribution of  parish  funds,  and  provided  minutely  for  their 
collection,  but  expressly  stated  that  the  offerings  to  be  re- 
ceived from  **the  good  Christian  people**  were  to  be  volun- 
tary.^® Twenty-two  years  later  the  next  step  toward  taxation 
for  the  support  of  the  poor  was  taken.  Each  parish  church 
was  required  to  elect  two  able  persons  to  be  collectors  of  alms, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  **gentellie  aske  and  demande  of  everie 
man  and  woman  what  they  of  their  charitie  will  be  contented 
to  give  wekelie  towardes  the  relief  of  the  Poore. '  *  If  any  able 
to  contribute  should  refuse  to  do  so,  the  parson  and  the  church 
wardens  were  to  **gentillie  exhorte  him.*'  This  failing  to 
bring  results,  the  bishop  summoned  the  reluctant  member  and 
endeavored  to  persuade  him,  **by  charitable  wayes  and 
means,"  to  contribute.*^ 

The  next  logical  step  toward  supporting  the  poor  by  a 
general  tax  on  property  took  place  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 
Contributions  were  still  voluntary,  but  now,  after  persuasion 
and  kindly  entreaty  had  failed,  it  was  provided  that  the 
brother  of  **forwarde  or  willful  minde"  should  be  bound  over 
to  appear  before  the  justices  at  their  next  session,  who  were 
to  **  charitably  and  gentelly  persuade  and  move  the  said  ob- 


15.  Ibid.,  p.  308. 

16.  Ihid.,  p.  331ff. 

17.  15  mch.  II,  c  6. 

18.  Se  Henry  VIII,  c  12  (1530). 

19.  5  4'  e  Edw.  VI,  c  S. 


ENGLISH  FOUNDATIONS  13 

stinate  person  textend  his  or  their  Charitee  towardes  the  Re- 
lief of  the  Poore."  In  case  he  still  refused,  these  officers  were 
directed  to  lay  a  definite  assessment  upon  him.  For  failure  to 
pay  this  assessment,  the  reluctant  almoner  might  be  imprisoned 
until  the  sum  had  been  paid,  "together  with  the  arrerages 
therof  yf  any  suche  shall  fortune  to  bee/'^'^ 

Ten  years  later  the  law  was  amended,^^  empowering  justices 
for  the  first  time  to  tax  and  assess  weekly  charges  for  poor 
funds  to  provide  employment  for  ** rogues  and  vagabonds.*' 
The  next  step,  1575,  authorized  the  use  of  these  funds  to  pro- 
vide employment  for  children  and  to  accustom  them  to  work, 
as  a  prophylactic  against  vagabondage  and  pauperism.^^ 

In  1597  and  1601  the  final  steps  were  taken  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  poor  law  to  the  state  in  which  it  is  found  when 
compulsory  education  laws  appear  in  the  Massachusetts 
records.^^  In  these  laws  of  Elizabeth  still  more  definite  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  compulsory  support  of  the  worthy 
poor,  for  the  industrial  training  of  children,  and  for  apprentic- 
ing those  whose  parents  were  not  able  to  maintain  them.^* 
These  statutes  may  be  regarded  as  acts  of  consolidation  and 
simplification.  The  experiences  of  three  centuries  in  dealing 
wath  vagrants,  with  the  unemployed,  and  with  the  poor  and 
their  children,  are  brought  together.  Defective  as  these  regula- 
tions now  appear,  they  were  the  best  the  period  could  devise, 
and  their  influence  in  the  following  century  both  in  England 
and  in  America  is  difficult  to  estimate.^^ 


20.  5  Eliz.,cS  (1563). 

21.  14  EUz.,c  5  (1572-73). 

22.  18  Eliz.,  c  S.  The  section  of  the  statute  dealing  with  this  subject  leads 
thus  quaintly  up  to  the  specific  orders  of  the  law;  **Also  to  the  Intente 
Youthe  maye  be  accustomed  and  brought  up  in  Laboure  and  Worke,  and 
then  not  lyke  to  growe  to  bee  ydle  Rogs,  and  to  the  Entente  also  that  suche 
as  bee  alredye  growen  up  in  Ydleness,  and  so  Roges  at  this  present,  maye 
not  have  any  juste  Excuse  in  sayeng  that  they  cannot  get  any  Service  or 
Worcke — and  that  other  poore  and  needye  maye  bee  set  on  Worcke:  Bee 
yt  ordeyned  and  enacted  ....'*  etc. 

23.  39  Eliz.,  c  S  4-  4;  43  Eliz.,  c  2. 

24.  It  is  not  possible  to  determine  the  approximate  number  of  children  who 
were  receiving  this  form  of  compulsory  industrial  training.  The  number 
must  have  been  considerable,  for  it  is  estimated  that  in  the  later  years  of 
Elizabeth  nearly  a  third  of  the  people  of  England  were  recipients  of  charity. 
Bruce,  Economic  History  of  Virginia,  1896,  Vol.  I,  p.  582. 

25.  See  Ashley,  English  Economic  History,  p.  366. 


14   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

It  is  not  probable  that  Englishmen  accepted  with  universal 
enthusiasm  the  principles  of  compulsion  as  they  appeared  in 
the  process  of  their  slow  development.  The  fact  that  a  small 
group  of  radicals  in  a  new  country  found  it  immediately  de- 
sirable to  employ  them  all  with  several  important  modifica- 
tions and  additions  is  not  conclusive  evidence  of  their  popular- 
ity. Ashley  saj^s  that  the  compulsory  poor  rate,  or  tax,  prob- 
ably excited  much  the  same  indignation  as  does  the  school 
board  rate  of  to-day.  Gibbins,  referring  to  the  same  thing, 
says,  *'It  was  no  longer  a  free  act  of  Christian  charity,  but  a 
compulsory  contribution  toward  the  mitigation  of  a  social 
evil,  a  contribution  of  the  same  nature  as  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury poor-rate.^^ 

Nor  was  there  a  universal  attempt  to  enforce  all  the  pro- 
visions of  the  law.  Where  the  voluntary  system  brought  in 
sufficient  funds,  the  old  plan  stood  for  a  hundred  years.^^ 
But  the  operation  of  this  legislation  in  England  is  of  little  con- 
cern in  this  study.  It  is  not  probable  that  any  of  these  laws 
were  regarded  as  educational  at  the  time,  though  the  portions 
dealing  with  apprenticeship  to  the  crafts  are  now  seen  to  have 
very  direct  educational  bearing.  These  regulations,  says  Cun- 
ningham, as  a  scheme  of  technical  education  for  artisans  were 
admirably  suited  to  the  needs  of  the  times.  The  apprenticing 
of  pauper  children,  too,  was  educational,  in  that  they  were  at 
least  taught  to  earn  a  living.  Public  effort  in  this  direction 
was  later  supplemented  by  private  beneficence,  and  institu- 


26.  Gibbins,  Industry  in  England,  p.  261.  Tawney,  op.  cit.,  p.  269,  is 
almost  dramatic  in  showing  how,  in  a  gradual  process  of  political  evolution, 
government  arrives  at  the  Elizabethan  program  of  public  control,  support, 
and  industrial  training  of  the  poor  under  compulsory  assessment  or  tax. 
He  says :  *  *  Governments  make  desperate  efforts  for  about  one  hundred  years 
to  evade  their  new  obligations.  They  whip  and  brand  and  bore  ears;  they 
offer  the  vagrant  as  a  slave  to  the  man  who  seizes  him;  they  appeal  to 
charity ;  they  introduce  the  parish  clergy  to  put  pressure  on  the  uncharitable  j 
they  direct  the  bishops  to  reason  with  those  who  stop  their  ears  against  the 
parish  clergy.  When  merely  repressive  measures  and  voluntary  effort  are 
finally  discredited,  they  levy  a  compulsory  charge  rather  as  a  fine  for  con- 
tumacy than  as  a  rate,  and  slide  reluctantly  into  obligatory  assessments  only 
when  all  else  has  failed.'* 

27.  Ashley,  op.  cit.,  p.  360.  See  also  Nicholls,  History  of  the  English  Poor 
Law,  Vol.  I,  p.  253,  and  Charles  Richmond  Henderson,  Modern  Methods  of 
Charity,  pp.  167-172.  The  transfer  of  authority  in  the  administration  of 
the  poor  law  from  the  church  to  the  state  was  a  gradual  process. 


ENGLISH  FOUNDATIONS  15 

tions  were  established  in  which  children  were  taught  certain 
useful  arts.^* 

Meanwhile,  the  literary  education  of  the  masses  had  not 
fared  well.    There  was  no  attempt  or  apparent  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  government  to  place  learning,  in  the  accepted  sense 
of  the  term,  at  the  command  of  the  common  people.^^     The 
schools  which  might  easily  have  developed  into  elementary 
state-controlled  schools  were  destroyed  by  Henry  VIII  under 
the  first  Chantry  act.^°    The  Reformation  did  not  affect  Eng- 
land as  it  did  Germany  and  the  other  protesting  countries. 
During  the  undisputed  sway  of  the  Catholic  church  there  had 
been  a  demand  for  highly  educated  priests  and  teachers,  but 
literary  learning  on  the  part  of  the  commonalty  was  not  re- 
garded as  necessary.    Under  the  leadership  of  the  Protestant 
Reformers  the  education  of  all  was  stressed  from  the  first,^^ 
and  the  idea  not  only  of  affording  opportunity  to  all  to  acquire 
at  least  a  knowledge  of  reading,  but  of  actually  requiring  the 
attainment  of  such  knowledge,  was  not  foreign  to  the  thought 
of  the  day.    But  the  English  were  not  disturbed  by  this  new 
doctrine,  except  as  they  were  reached  from  without  by  the 
Lutheran  or  Calvinistic  teachings.    The  more  radical  English 
Protestants,  later  known  as  Puritans,  had,   of  course,  come 
under  the  influence  of  Calvinism  in  its  educational  as  well  as 
its  ecclesiastical  principles,  and  though  it  was  not  possible,  in 
England,  to  require  education  by  secular  law,  beyond  that  in- 
dustrial training  which  had  for  a  long  period  been  given  to 
the  children  of  the  poor,  their  higher  law  of  conscience  doubt- 
less did  require  that  all  children  be  taught  to  read  the  Bible. 
Accustomed,  as  the  Puritans  had  been  for  years,  to  the  in- 
dustrial training  of  the  poor  at  public  expense,  it  was  not  to 
prove  difficult,  in  the  small  and  relatively  democratic  group 
in  America,  to  attach  to  the  industrial  program  learning  in 


28.  Cuimingham,  English  Industry  and  Commerc€f  p.  52 ;  also  Hutchins  and 
Harrison,  History  of  Factory  Legislation,  p.  3. 

29.  In  1662  an  act  was  passed  under  which  instruction  in  both  letters  and 
industry  was  given  to  children  of  the  poor  in  London.  Dobbs,  ibid,  p.  96. 
There  is  evidence  that  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  certain  parishes  were  giving 
aid  in  specific  cases  in  tuition  for  both  elementary  and  advanced  literary 
instruction.    De  Montmorency,  State  Intervention  in  Eng.  Ed.,  p.  67. 

30.  Leach,  English  Schools  at  the  Eeformation,  p.  3. 

31.  Parker,  History  of  Modern  Elementary  Education,  ch.  3. 


16    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

letters  as  well.  It  is  by  no  means  insignificant  that  in  Scot- 
land, even  before  the  Reformation,  there  was  a  movement 
towards  compulsory  education  for  the  sons  of  nobles  and  free- 
holders,^^ while  under  Protestant  influences  elementary  schools 
were  made  compulsory  upon  the  parishes  in  1616. 

Step  by  step,  through  a  period  of  three  hundred  years,  Eng- 
land had  evolved  certain  principles  of  state  control  upon  which 
rest  our  modern  democratic  systems  of  public  education.  There 
has  been  a  complete  reversal  of  ideals  regarding  the  productive 
labor  of  children,  yet  in  the  development  of  recent  compulsory 
vo(;ational  education  there  is  striking  similarity  in  aim. 

In  conclusion,  the  more  important  principles  of  public  con- 
trol revealed  in  this  brief  consideration  of  the  English  Poor 
Law,  and  appearing  more  or  less  distinctly  in  later  American 
legislation  regulating  the  schooling  and  employment  of  chil- 
dren, may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

1.  The  state  may  control  the  movements  and  the  employ- 
ment of  the  poor. 

2.  The  state  may  compel  the  local  community  to  care  for 
its  unemployed  and  its  poor,  and  may  require  that  funds  for 
these  purposes  be  raised  by  general  tax. 

3.  The  state  recognizes  the  value  of  the  regular  employ- 
ment of  youth,  both  in  its  relation  to  the  economic  indepen- 
dence of  the  individual  and  its  effect  upon  his  moral  character. 

4.  The  state  may  not  only  require  that  all  children  be  em- 
ployed, but  it  may  determine  the  nature  of  the  employment. 

5.  Though  the  regular,  productive  employment  of  youth  is 
desirable,  attendance  at  school  may  always  be  accepted  as  a 
satisfactory  substitute. 

6.  The  state  may  require  the  local  community  to  train  or 
educate  its  children  in  industry. 

7.  The  state  may  require  the  local  community  to  take  chil- 
dren from  parents  unable  to  support  them,  and  bind  them  out 
as  apprentices  to  learn  a  trade. 

8.  The  state  may  require  the  local  community  to  tax  its 
members  to  support  industrial  training  or  education. 


32.  Strong,  History  of  Secondary  Education  in  Scotland,  p.  32. 


CHAPTER  II 

COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  AND   CHILD   LABOR 
IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 

Long  before  the  first  settlements  were  established  in 
America,  the  tradition  of  the  compulsory  care  and  industrial 
training  of  the  children  of  the  poor  had  become  firmly  estab- 
lished in  English  law.  It  remained  for  colonial  New  England 
to  add  the  elements  of  literary  education  to  the  program  and 
to  extend  it  to  include  the  children  of  all  classes.  Within  a 
single  decade  after  the  charter  was  granted  to  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay  Company,  a  college  was  set  up  in  the  new  world, 
and  schools  were  in  operation.  In  the  second  decade,  both 
elementary  and  secondary  schools  were  made  compulsory,  their 
support  by  public  taxation  was  legalized,  and  parents  allow- 
ing their  children  to  grow  up  in  either  ignorance  or  idleness 
were  subject  to  the  penalty  of  the  law.  The  histories  of  several 
of  the  American  colonies  illustrate  the  gradual  expansion  of 
the  early  English  conception  of  education,  but  the  limits  of 
the  present  study  permit  the  examination  of  materials  in 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  only. 

Between  1628  and  1640,  approximately  twenty  thousand 
people,  all  of  English  birth,  settled  around  Massachusetts  Bay, 
about  four  thousand  of  them  settling  in  or  near  Boston  with- 
in the  first  six  years  of  this  period.^  They  were  Puritans, 
representatives,  therefore,  of  the  more  progressive  or  liberal 
element  in  English  politics.  It  is  important  to  remember  that 
the  settlers  of  Massachusetts  Bay  were  not  exiles  from  their 
native  land,  turning  away  from  old  customs  and  laws  with 
anger  in  their  hearts.  They  were  Englishmen,  guaranteed 
under  charter  full  rights  as  English  subjects,  they  and  those 
to  be  born  to  them  in  the  ncAv  land,  '*as  yf  they  and  everie  of 
them  were  borne  within  the  realme  of  England.^    They  were 


1.  Fiske,  The  Beginnings  of  New  England,  p.  109. 

2.  Massachusetts  Bay  Charter. 

17 


18    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

not  seeking  to  escape  English  law,  but  held  from  the  king 
authority  to  govern  themselves  as  Englishmen.  Naturally  the 
government  set  up  in  the  New  World  would  be  established 
upon  English  precedents,  though  the  colonists  were  given  full 
power  to  enact  additional  legislation  as  circumstances  might 
require,  the  only  limitation  being  that  such  acts  *'be  not  con- 
trarie  or  repugnant  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  our  realme  of 
England."^ 

The  best  that  England  had  accomplished  up  to  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century  might  be  expected  in  the  earliest  legis- 
lative expression  of  the  new  citizens  of  Massachusetts.  They 
were  a  select  group,  well  bred,  well  educated,  possessed  of 
the  highest  religious  ideals  of  the  time.*  It  is  evident,  how- 
ever, that  the  saintly  character  of  these  early  pioneers  has 
been  overemphasized  by  certain  of  their  enthusiastic  historians. 
John  Fiske,  for  example,  says  of  them:  **The  lowest  ranks  of 
society  were  not  represented  in  the  emigration;  and  all  idle, 
shiftless,  or  disorderly  people  were  rigorously  refused  ad- 
mission into  the  new  community. ''...' 

Yet  the  records  show  that  while  admission  as  freemen  in  the 
Company  was  limited  to  church  members  and  property  holders, 
there  were  in  the  Colony  from  the  first  many  servants  and 
laborers  for  the  control  of  whom  strict  laws  were  at  once 
enacted.**  The  records  further  show  that  almost  from  the  first 
the  magistrates  were  obliged  to  deal  not  only  with  petty  crime 
but  with  offenses  as  black  as  those  which  stain  the  records  of 
modern  courts.  Attention  is  called  to  these  conditions,  not  as 
a  reflection  upon  the  character  of  the  splendid  men  and  women 
who  broke  the  way  into  the  New  England  wilderness,  but  as 
a  reminder  that  they  were  typical  Englishmen  of  the  Puritan 
group,  no  worse,  perhaps  not  greatly  superior  to  the  three  or 
four  million  who  remained  at  home. 

The  task  of  establishing  government  was  not  a  formidable 


3.  Hid. 

4.  Dexter,  History  of  Education  in  the  United  States,  p.  24;  Palfrey, 
History  of  New  England,  p.  277. 

5.  American  and  Political  Ideas,  p.  21. 

6.  Eecords  of  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  I,  pp.  76,  77,  81,  84,  88,  etc. 
See  also  the  Governor's  letter  on  care  of  servants,  April  21,  1629;  Ibid.,  p. 
396  ff. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  19 

one.  Records  indicate  that  there  was  no  break  in  English 
customs.  English  laws  prevailed  except  when  lack  of  pre- 
cedent, both  in  English  statutes  and  the  Bible  forced  them  to 
initiate  ncAV  legislation  ^  Through  the  General  Court  and  in 
toT^Ti  meetings  the  Massachusetts  freemen  fixed  wages,®  pro- 
vided for  the  poor,®  ordered  that  poor  children  be  apprenticed 
and  taught  a  trade,^°  laid  severe  personal  restrictions  upon 
members  of  the  community,^^  quite  after  the  fashion  of  their 
fellow  Englishmen  across  the  sea. 

As  has  been  demonstrated  in  the  preceding  chapter,  the 
people  of  England  had  gradually  grown  accustomed  to  definite 
public  control  of  the  poor.  In  America  the  idea  of  compulsion 
was  extended  so  as  to  bring  the  entire  population  under  various 
forms  of  control  formerly  reserved  for  certain  classes.  Com- 
pulsory employment  of  children  was  stressed  in  much  the  same 
fashion  as  in  England,  except  that  in  New  England  the  chil- 
dren of  all  classes  became  the  objects  of  public  solicitude.  The 
Governor  urged  at  the  first  that  **all  apply  themselves  to  one 
calling  or  other,  and  noe  idle  drones  bee  permitted  to  live 
amongst  us.^^  The  economic  as  well  as  the  moral  value  of  child 
labor  was  appreciated,  as  evidenced  by  the  approving  comment 
of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Higgeson,  who  wrote  in  1629  of  Marble- 
harbor,  near  Salem:  ** Little  children  here  by  setting  of  corne 
may  earne  much  more  than  their  own  maintenance.'*^^ 

By  1640,  the  General  Court  was  considering  ways  and  means 
of  utilizing  labor  of  children  to  increase  the  economic  efficiency 
of  the  colony.  A  larger  supply  of  linen  being  desired,  the 
Court  in  its  May  session  gravely  considered  **what  course  may 
bee  taken  for  teaching  the  boyes  and  girles  in  all  towns  the 
spining  of  the  yarne.*'**    A  year  later,  the  Court  in  further 


7.  "Good  News  from  New  England/*  1648.     In.  Collections  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc,  Series  4,  Vol.  VI,  p.  205. 

8.  Records  of  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  I,  p.  76. 

9.  Ibid.,  p.  122. 

10.  Flymouth  Colonial  Records,  II,  p.  38. 

11.  Cambridge  Becord,  p.  108;  Baintree  Becords,  p.  5;  Becords  of  Col.  of 
Mass.  Bay,  I,  p.  140. 

12.  Becords  of  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay,  I,  p.  405. 

13.  Collections  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  I,  p.  118. 

14.  Becords  of  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay,  I,  p.  294. 


20    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

consideration  of  the  economic  Avelfare  of  the  community  again 
ordered  the  employment  of  children,  implying  that  the 
English  practice  of  instruction  in  industry  was  beginning  to 
fall  into  disuse.     The  entry  is  in  part: 

**And  it  is  desired  &  wilbe  expected  that  all  masters  of 
families  should  see  that  their  children  &  servants  should  bee 
industriously  implied,  so  as  the  mornings  &  evenings  &  other 
seasons  may  not  bee  lost,  as  formerly  they  have  bene;  (&  if  it 
bee  so  continued  will  certeinly  bring  us  to  poverty;)  but  that 
the  honest  &  profitable  customs  of  England  may  bee  practised 
amongst  us  so  as  all  hands  may  bee  implied." . .  .^^ 

The  following  year,  1642,  marks  the  first  great  advance  over 
English  legislation  in  the  control  and  instruction  of  children. 
The  law  of  that  year  is  one  of  the  most  famous  bits  of  educa- 
tional legislation  in  history.  It  sums  up  the  English  procedure 
regarding  instruction  of  the  children  of  the  poor  in  productive 
industry,  but,  going  further,  extends  the  requirements  to  in- 
clude all  children ;  it  enjoins  upon  the  towns  the  duty  of  hold- 
ing children  steadily  to  their  tasks;  gives  directions  for  deal- 
ing with  delinquents ;  and  for  the  first  time  in  English  history 
provides  for  the  literary  instruction  of  every  child.^® 

This  is  strictly  a  compulsory  education  and  child  labor  law. 
Its  provisions  concerning  the  labor  of  children  were,  of  course, 
almost  exactly  the  reverse  of  the  modern  conception  of  what 
such  a  law  should  be;  it  made  no  schooling  requirements  and 


15.  Ihid. 

16.  Ibid.,  II,  pp.  6-7.  The  law  is  repeated  with  very  slight  variation  on  pages 
8-9  of  this  volume.    Its  salient  points  are  as  follows 

1.  It  recites  the  neglect  of  parents  and  masters  in  ''training  up  their 
children  in  learning  and  labor,  and  other  imployments  which  may  be 
profitable  to  the  common  wealth.'* 

2.  It  charges  the  selectmen  of  the  various  towns  with  the  correction  of 
this  evil. 

3.  For  neglect  of  this  duty,  the  officials  are  made  subject  to  fine  or  other 
punishment. 

4.  A  standard  of  literary  education  is  fixed,  children  being  required  to 
read  and  to  understand  the  principles  of  religion  and  the  capital  laws  of 
the  country. 

5.  The  officials  were  given  power  to  impose  fines  on  parents  and  masters 
who  refused  to  comply  with  the  law. 

6.  The  officials  were  given  power,  any  court  or  magistrate  consenting,  to 
apprentice  children  whose  parents  or  masters  were  found  unable  or  unfit 
to  care  for  them  properly. 

7.  Adequate  provisions  were  made  for  the  enforcement  of  the  measure. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  21 

provided  no  schools,  but  it  made  provisions  for  enforcement 
which  were  equalled  by  few  if  any  of  the  schooling  and  labor 
laws  prior  to  the  twentieth  eentury,^'^  and  anticipated  some  of 
the  principles  of  modern  industrial  education. 

To  what  extent  the  law  of  1642  was  enforced  in  those  early 
years,  the  records  do  not  reveal.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
its  machinery  was  capable  of  operation,  and  that  in  Massachu- 
setts and  later  in  Connecticut  individuals  were  prosecuted  for 
its  violation.^^ 

No  further  legislation  of  a  general  character  regarding  the 
employment  of  children  seems  to  have  been  found  necessary. 
The  act  of  1642,  which  was  **to  continue  for  two  years,  and 
till  the  Court  shall  take  further  order,"  was  reenacted  in  1648 
with  changes  intended  to  strengthen  it  and  render  its  pro- 
visions more  specific,  and  in  its  re\dsed  form  it  continued  to 
appear  in  the  codes  of  both  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
until  the  English  Government,  under  Andros,  took  back  the 
charter.^®  The  poor-laws  of  the  colonies,  also,  reveal  some- 
thing of  the  public  attitude  towards  children  and  the  passion 
for  bringing  them  up  in  habits  of  industry.  Only  later  was 
there  evidenced  in  this  legislation  concern  for  the  literary 
education  of  the  poor.  For  example,  in  1658,  long  before  there 
is  a  record  of  a  school  in  the  place,  the  Court  at  Plymouth 
directed  Captain  Josias  Winslow  and  Constance  Southworth 
to  cooperate  with  the  Treasurer  in  the  erection  of  an  addition 
to  the  jail,  such  addition  to  be  used  as  a  house  of  correction 
to  which  all  idlers,  vagrants,  and  **  rebellious  children  and 
servants"  were  to  be  brought,  properly  disciplined,  and  set 
to  work.2° 

The  Province  Charter,  1692,  sums  up  in  a  single  sentence  the 
sentiment  and  practice  of  the  time,  affording,  also,  precedent 
for  the  truancy  laws  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  in  enjoining  the  overseers  of  the  poor  to  see  that 


17.  Elizabeth  Otey,  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United  States, 
Vol.  VI,  p.  15.    Senate  Doc.  No.  645,  1910. 

18.  Bee.  of  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay,  III,  p.  102 ;  Watertown  Bee.,  pp.  103-114. 

19.  Jemegan,  ** Compulsory  Education  in  the  American  Colonies,**  School 
Beview,  Dec,  1918,  pp.  740-744.  Note:  In  1650,  the  educational  and  indus- 
trial laws  of  Massachusetts  were  embodied  without  material  change  in  the 
Connecticut  Code. 

20.  Plymouth  Becords,  XI,  p.  40. 


22   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

children  **not  having  estates  otherwise  to  maintain  themselves, 
do  not  live  idly  and  mispend  their  time  in  loitering,  but  that 
they  be  brought  up  or  iraployed  in  some  honest  calling,  which 
may  be  profitable  unto  themselves  and  the  publick."^^ 
'^  The  law  contemplated  that  all  poor  children  would  be  bound 
out  to  learn  a  trade  or  to  master  some  form  of  industry .^^  A 
few  years  later  an  educational  clause  was  added  to  the  pro- 
visions for  apprenticing  poor  children,  their  masters  being  re- 
quired to  teach  them  **to  read  and  write  as  they  may  be  cap- 
able." In  1710  and  in  1771  the  educational  clause  underwent 
slight  changes  which  throw  some  light  on  the  education  of 
girls  in  the  eighteenth  century.  In  the  former  year,  overseers 
of  the  poor  were  directed  to  cause  bound  children  to  be  taught, 
**  males  to  read  and  write,  females  to  read,  as  they  respectively 
may  be  capable.  "^^  In  1771  it  was  provided  that  boys  be  in- 
structed in  ** reading,  writing  and  cyphering,**  girls  in  reading 
and  writing,  **if  they  be  capable.  **2*  The  development  of  laws 
for  the  employment  and  education  of  poor  children  in  Con- 
necticut did  not  differ  essentially  from  that  in  Massachusetts, 
and  throws  little  additional  light  upon  the  progress  cf  public 
control. 

Apparently  the  highest  point  in  Puritan  educational  ideals 
was  reached  in  the  year  1647.  Compulsory  education  both  in 
industry  and  letters  had  been  provided  for  by  the  measure  of 
1642.  Under  this  act  no  schools  had  been  required,  but  the 
responsibility  of  fulfilling  its  educational  obligations  was  laid 
directly  upon  parents  and  masters  of  children.  There  is 
evidence  that  elementary  or  at  least  dame  schools  were  quite 
common  at  that  time,  and  in  the  larger  towns  Latin  Grammar 
Schools  similar  to  those  of  England  had  been  set  up,^^     But 


21.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  Authorized  Edition  of  1867,  Vol.  I,  p.  67. 

22.  Those  who  would  not  work  were  taken  to  the  house  of  correction  for 
special  treatment.  On  entering,  each,  without  regard  to  sex,  was  given  not 
to  exceed  ten  strokes  of  the  whip  on  the  bare  back. 

23.  Acts  and  Besolves  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  Vol.  I,  p.  538. 
Ihid,  p.  654. 

24.  Ibid.,  Vol.  V,  p.  162.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  legisla- 
tion refers  only  to  children  who  came  under  the  supervision  of  the  overseers 
of  the  poor.  The  law  of  1642  required  both  parents  and  masters  of  appren- 
tices to  teach  children  in  their  charge  to  read. 

25.  Collections  Mass.  Historical  Society,  Vol.  I,  pp.  240-243 ;  IX,  p.  160. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  23 

the  fear  of  illiteracy  was  in  the  hearts  of  the  Puritan  leaders.^^ 
Their  religion  demanded  that  all  be  able  to  read,  and,  in  order 
to  insure  to  the  children  of  every  community  the  educational 
opportunities  voluntarily  provided  by  the  most  progressive, 
the  famous  compulsory  school  law  of  1647  was  enacted,  the 
following  being  its  most  important  provisions  :^^  

1.  A  master  able  to  teach  reading  and  writing  in  every 
community  of  fifty  families. 

2.  A  grammar  school  in  every  town  of  one  hundred  families 
with  a  master  able  to  prepare  the  boys  for  admission  to  the 
university. 

3.  Teachers  to  be  paid  either  by  parents  or  masters  or  by 
means  of  a  general  tax. 

4.  A  penalty  of  five  English  pounds  upon  any  community 
failing  to  meet  the  terms  of  the  law. 

Dr.  George  Martin  discovers  in  the  two  laws  of  1642  and 
1647,  six  principles  upon  which  our  modern  public  school 
systems  are  largely  based.^®     They  are: 

1.  The  universal  education  of  youth  is  essential  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  state. 

2.  The  obligation  to  furnish  this  education  rests  primarily 
upon  the  parent. 

3.  The  state  has  a  right  to  enforce  this  obligation. 

4.  The  state  may  fix  a  standard  which  shall  determine  the 
kind  of  education  and  minimum  amount. 

5.  Funds  may  be  raised  by  a  general  tax  to  support  such 
education. 

6.  Education  higher  than  elementary  may  be  supplied  by 
the  state. 

It  will  be  observed  that  practically  all  these  principles  are 
at  least  dimly  outlined  in  the  various  measures  developed  in 
England  during  the  three  centuries  preceding  the  emigration 
to  America.2^  It  will  also  be  observed  that  but  two  elements 
are  now  lacking  to  include  all  that  make  up  the  modern  com- 
pulsory education  law,  an  attendance  requirement  and  free- 
dom of  the  child  from  labor  during  the  school  period.  Neither 
of  these  principles  appears  in  the  American  school  systems  un- 


26.  ''New  England ^s  First  Fruits,"  1643;  in  Collections  Mass  Historical 
Society,  Vol.  VI,  p.  242. 

27.  Tiec.  of  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay,  II,  p.  203. 

28.  Evolution  of  the  Mass.  Public  School  System,  p.  13. 

29.  See  Chapter  I. 


24   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

til  the  nineteenth  century ;  the  acceptance  of  the  latter  involved 
a  fundamental  change  in  the  conception  of  the  child  *s  economic 
status. 

■  The  law  of  1647  left  the  question  of  school  support  entirely 
to  the  community.  It  merely  required  that  schools  be  main- 
tained. The  support  of  public  enterprise  by  general  taxation 
was  v/cll  established  by  this  time,  but  the  general  policy  of 
meeting  the  entire  expense  of  elementary  and  secondary  educa- 
tion in  this  way  was  deferred  to  the  nineteenth  century.  Few, 
if  any,  of  the  early  schools  were  entirely  free.  Of  seven  im- 
portant grammar  schools  in  Massachusetts,  Martin  finds  no 
two  maintained  in  the  same  way.^"  Frequently  lands  were  set 
apart  either  by  the  Court  or  by  the  town,  the  income  to  be 
used  in  partial  payment  of  a  master.^^  Again,  lands  were  made 
over  to  a  faithful  teacher  as  partial  compensation  for  his 
services,  or  sold  and  the  proceeds  used  for  the  purpose.^^  Often 
a  rate  was  levied  on  all  patrons  of  the  school  able  to  pay,  the 
town  voting  funds  to  provide  for  the  education  of  those  of 
restricted  means.^^  But  back  of  all  this  liberty  as  to  methods 
of  support  was  the  authority  of  the  state  now  able  to  require 
that  each  town  support  its  school  or  pay  a  fixed  penalty. 

But  the  promise  of  the  earlier  years  was  not  fully  realized.^* 
The  sons  of  the  second  and  third  generations  were  not  able  to 
maintain  the  high  standards  of  their  fathers.  Some  of  the 
causes  are  obvious.  The  Puritan  leaders  were  picked  men, 
men  of  more  than  average  intelligence  and  education,  certain- 
ly men  of  lofty  ideals  and  for  the  most  part  highly  religious. 
The  laws  of  normal  distribution  of  ability,  piety,  and  other 
human  qualities  would  tend  to  level  down  in  the  succeeding 
generations  those  attributes  which,   through   selection,   were 


30.  Op.  at.,  p.  48. 

31.  Bee.  of  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay,  IV,  pt.  1,  pp.  397,  400.    Baintree  Becords, 
p.  9. 

32.  PulUcations  Colonial  Society  of  Mass.,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  135. 
Cambridge,  town  meeting,  Sept.  13,  1648:  *'It  is  agreed  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Whole  Towne,  that  there  should  be  land  sould  of  the  Comon  to  the 
gratifying  of  mr.  Corlet,  for  his  paines  in  keeping  a  schoole  in  the  Towne, 
the  sume  of  Ten  pounds,  if  it  can  be  attained,  provided:  it  shall  not 
prjudice  the  Cow  comon." 

33.  Eartford  Town  Votes,  I,  pp.  63,  65.    Baintree  Becords,  p.  18. 

34.  See  Updegraff,  The  Origin  of  the  Moving  School  in  Mass.,  1908,  Ch. 
VII. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  25 

abnormally  high  in  the  first.  Then  many  able  men,  few  of  the 
lower  ranks,  returned  to  England.^^  Bitter  warfare  with 
hostile  natives  brought  prosperous  colonies  to  poverty.^^  The 
witchcraft  madness  seriously  affected  parts  of  the  colonies  dur- 
ing the  later  decades  of  the  century.^^  All  of  these  influences, 
together  with  the  unavoidable  hardships  of  pioneer  life,  the 
lack  of  leisure,  and  the  added  fact  that  all  education  above 
the  rudiments  led  directly  to  the  college,  serving  no  other  ) 
recognized  purpose,  effected  a  steady  decline  in  educational 
standards  during  the  later  years  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
extending  through  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth. ^^ 

Many  towns  were  presented  in  the  later  years  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  for  failure  to  provide  the  required  schools.^® 
In  Massachusetts  the  penalty  for  such  failure  was  doubled  in 
1671*°  and  again  in  1683.  In  the  latter  year  it  was  required 
also  that  in  case  a  town  had  increased  to  five  hundred  families 
two  writing  schools  and  two  grammar  schools  should  be  main- 
tained. The  increase  in  penalty  may  be  regarded  as  an  in- 
dication that  certain  towns  had  found  it  less  burdensome  to 
pay  the  fine  than  to  keep  up  a  school. 

Throughout  the  colonial  period,  educational  and  economic 
conditions  remained  much  the  same  in  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut.  In  the  latter  colony  there  is  excellent  evidence 
that  though  zeal  in  the  education  of  children  might  lag,  there 
was  no  lack  of  interest  in  their  productive  capacity.  Apparent- 
ly the  long  school  year  interfered  with  the  industrial  program, 
for  in  1690  the  General  Court  reduced  the  period  during  which 
the  elementary  school  must  be  in  session  to  six  months  be- 


35.  Josselyn,  Collections  Mass.  Historical  Society,  Series  3,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  384. 

36.  Old  Colony  Historical  Society  Collections,  II,  p.  13. 

It  is  said  that  at  the  close  of  King  Philip's  War,  1675,  of  eighty  towns 
ten  had  been  destroyed  or  abandoned,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  rest  had 
suffered  heavily;  one  man  in  every  ten  of  military  age  had  fallen;  a  debt 
had  been  created  exceeding,  in  Plymouth,  the  entire  value  of  personal 
property. 

37.  See  the  diaries  of  Cotton  Mather  and  Judge  Sewell  in  Mass.  Hist. 
Society,  Series  7,  Vol.  VII,  p.  150;  and  Series  5,  Vol.  V,  pp.  358-365. 

38.  Weedon,  Economic  History  of  New  England,  I,  p.  220. 

39.  For  examples  see  Dorchester  Town  Becords,  in  Beport  of  Becord  Com- 
mission of  Boston,  Vol.  V,  p.  84.  History  of  Newbury,  p.  124;  Early 
Becords  of  Lancaster,  p.  172. 

40.  Bee.  of  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay,  IV,  pt.  2,  p.  486.    Hid,  Vol.  V,  p.  414. 


26    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

cause  of  ''the  necessity  many  parents  or  masters  may  be  under 
to  improve  their  children  and  servants  in  labour  for  a  great 
part  of  the  yeare."*^  This  action  limited  the  educational 
opportunity  of  the  children  of  the  humbler  class,  as  the  Gram- 
mar schools,  attended  by  the  select  and  wealthier  group,  were 
not  affected  by  the  order.  The  thrifty  lawmakers  were  seem- 
ingly more  eager  to  ''improve'^  their  children  in  labor  than 
in  learning. 

Singularly  enough,  at  this  same  time  the  Court  records  the 
discovery  that  ''there  are  many  persons  unable  to  read  the 
English  tongue,  and  thereby  uncapable  to  read  the  holy  word 
of  God,  and  the  lawes  of  the  Colony."  Parents  and  masters 
were,  therefore,  strictly  enjoined  to  "cause  their  respective 
children  and  servants  as  they  are  capable,  to  be  taught  to  read 
distinctly  the  English  tongue.**^  There  is  no  evidence  that  any 
member  of  the  Court  was  impressed  by  the  inconsistency  of  the 
two  measures. 

In  1700  the  Connecticut  Code  was  again  revised,  bringing 
it  to  the  general  form,  in  which  it  remained  down  to  the  clos- 
ing years  of  the  century.  Under  this  code  every  town  of 
seventy  families  or  upward  was  required  to  "be  constantly 
provided  of  a  sufficient  schoolmaster  to  teach  the  children  and 
youth  to  read  and  write. '^  In  towns  of  less  than  seventy 
families  a  master  was  to  be  maintained  for  half  of  the  year. 
In  each  of  the  four  "county  towns'*  a  grammar  school  was 
required,  "and  some  discreet  person  of  good  conversation,  well 
instructed  in  the  tongues,  procured  to  keep  such  a  school.*' 
At  this  time  a  regular  tax  of  forty  shillings  per  thousand 
pounds  was  laid  upon  property  for  the  support  of  schools. 

In  Massachusetts,  King  William's  Charter  displaced  the  old 
organization  in  1691,  but  the  first  Assembly  reenacted  the  com- 
pulsory school  and  education  laws.  At  its  second  session  the 
essential  features  of  these  laws  were  restated  in  the  last  sec- 
tion of  a  measure  entitled,  "An  act  for  the  settlement  and  sup- 
port of  ministers  and  schoolmasters."*^    This  act  indicates  the 

41.  Connecticut  Becords,  IV,  p.  31. 

42.  lUd,,  p.  30. 

43.  Acts  and  'Resolves  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  Vol.  I,  pp.  62, 
63. 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  27 

high  degree  of  compulsion  still  attaching  to  the  religious  as 
well  as  the  educational  practices  of  the  Colony.  If  a  town 
neglected  to  supply  itself  with  an  ''able,  learned,  orthodox 
minister  or  ministers,  of  good  conversation,  to  dispense  the 
word  of  God  to  them,''  it  became  the  duty  of  the  Court  of 
Quarter  Sessions  to  procure  a  minister,  settle  him,  *'and  order 
the  charges  thereof  and  of  such  minister's  maintenance  to  be 
levied  on  the  inhabitants  of  such  towTi." 

Schools  were  required,  as  in  the  law  of  1647,  an  elementary 
school  throughout  the  year  in  towns  of  fifty  or  more  families,  a 
grammar  school  in  addition  if  there  were  one  hundred  families 
or  above.  The  law^  required  that  the  schoolmaster  be  "suit-, 
ably  encouraged  and  paid,"  and  for  the  first  time  included 
town  officials  in  fixing  responsibility  for  carrying  out  the  pro- 
\dsions  of  the  law.**  In  some  respects  the  requirements  were 
less  severe  than  in  1683.  The  larger  towns  were  no  longer 
obliged  to  maintain  two  schools  of  each  type,  and  the  penalty 
for  infraction  was  reduced  from  twenty  pounds  to  ten  pounds. 

But  the  spirit  of  the  time  vras  against  enforcement.  In  1701 
several  important  changes  were  made  in  an  attempt  to  secure 
more  adequate  administration.  The  new  law  opened  with  a 
recitation  of  the  provisions  of  the  preceding  measure  which, 
it  appears,  "is  shamefully  neglected  by  divers  towns,  and  the 
penalty  thereof  not  required,  tending  greatly  to  the  nourish- 
ing of  ignorance  and  irreligion,  whereof  grievous  complaint  is 
made." 

In  the  revision  of  1701  the  following  changes  are  most 
significant : 

The  former  penalty  of  twenty  pounds,  about  one-fourth  of 
a  Grammar  master's  salary  at  this  time,  was  restored. 

It  was  provided  that  the  master  should  be  approved  by  a 
special  committee  consisting  of  the  minister  of  the  town  and 
the  ministers  of  the  two  to^^^ls  next  adjacent. 

It  was  decreed  that  no  minister  should  function  also  as  a 
schoolmaster. 

Justices  of  the  peace  were  to  put  the  law  in  force,  and  grand 
jurors  were  enjoined  to  "diligently  inquire  and  make  present- 
ment of  all  breaches  and  neglect  of  said  laws."*^ 


44.  The  ** selectmen ' '  as  well  as  the  "inhabitants**  were  charged  with  the 
duty  of  supporting  the  schools  and  enforcing  the  law. 

45.  Acts  and  Hesolves,  op.  cit.,  p.  470. 


28    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

The  province  law  of  1701,  practically  closes  the  Colonial 
compulsory  school  legislation  in  Massachusetts.  In  the  law 
itself  is  evidenced  the  growing  apathy  of  the  people  towards 
the  schools.  Neglect  of  the  legal  requirements  were  common ; 
towns  were  openly  failing  either  to  maintain  schools  or  to  en- 
force the  penalty;  some  must  have  sought  to  meet  the  letter 
of  the  law  by  constituting  the  minister  schoolmaster;  others 
had  supplied  their  schools  with  teachers  not  able  to  meet  the 
scholarship  requirements.  **  Schools  were  half  neglected  in 
many  districts ;  in  a  few  they  were  totally  neglected.*^  There 
is,  to  be  sure,  abundant  evidence  that  certain  towns  were  try- 
ing to  enforce  the  law,  but  even  here  records  often  show  the 
educational  limitations  of  those  who  kept  them.*'^ 

This  period,  running  through  the  first  quarter  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  has  been  called  ^*the  dark  days  of  New  Eng- 
land,'' in  education  and  social  culture.  Learning,  so  hopefully 
fostered  by  the  fathers,  had  fallen  upon  evil  days. 

The  really  big  men  of  the  earlier  century,  those  with  vision, 
had  passed  on.  Men  who,  in  the  later  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  were  to  give  character  to  a  new  nation,  had  few  proto- 
types in  this  troubled  time.  The  hardships  of  frontier  life, 
combat  with  savage  beasts  and  men,  with  all  Nature's  hostile 
forces,  had  done  their  work.  A  generation  had  arisen  that 
**knew  nothing  of  a  refined  humanity,  knew  but  little  even  of 
the  justice  which  should  let  men  go  free."  Here  was  a  disease 
too  deeply  seated  for  compulsory  school  laws  to  reach,  for  such 
laws  could  not  be  put  into  action. 


46.  Weedon,  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,  p.  419. 

47.  The  following  examples  from  the  Watertown  Becords  are  illustrative: 
'  *  Willyam  priest  John  Fisk  and  George  Lorance  being  warned  to  a  meet- 
ting  of  the  select  men  at  John  Bigulah  his  house  they  makeing  their  a 
peerance:  and  being  found  defecttive  weer  admonished  for  not  learning 
their  Children  to  read  the  english  tong:  weer  eonveneed  did  acknowlidg 
their  neglects  and  did  promise  a  mendment.''  (Watertown  Becords,  p.  103, 
Dec.  13,  1670.) 

Again  a  committee  of  selectmen  had  been  appointed  to  go  through  ' '  their 
ceuerall  quarters  to  make  tyrall  whether  Children  and  servant  be  eaducated 
in  Learneing.'^  The  report  of  the  examining  committee  which  follows  is 
characteristic  of  many  other  entries  made  by  those  duly  elected  to  "ce^Tp 
the  Towne  boke."  '^nathan  fisk,  John  whitney  and  Izack  mickstur  meack- 
ing  return  of  thear  in  quiry  aftur  childrens  eddvcation  find  that  John  fisks 
children  ear  naythur  taught  to  reed  not  vet  thear  caticise."  (Ibid.,  p.  114, 
Nov.  25,  1672.) 


THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  29 

Prosperous  times  followed  the  years  of  stress  and  hardship 
in  New  Eni^land,  and  men  were  carried  away  with  a  passion 
for  gain.  Yet  in  the  growing  economic  prosperity  there  was 
much  of  promise  for  education.  On  the  surface  there  may  have 
been  little  to  offer  encouragement,  but  there  was  stirring 
among  men  everywhere  a  spirit  which  presently  manifested 
itself  in  the  keen  intellectual  movement  preceding  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  old  compulsory  school  laws  were  still  nominally  in 
force,  but  the  schools  they  were  intended  to  foster  did  not 
meet  the  needs  of  the  new  period.  Democracy  was  developing ; 
it  could  not  make  use  of  the  educational  tools  of  a  society 
organized  with  frank  recognition  of  rank  and  class,  so  these 
old  laws  were  never  re\'ived.  Their  principles  remained  to  be- 
come the  foundation  of  our  modern  compulsory  legislation  but 
could  serve  no  other  purpose  until,  in  the  first  century  of  the 
national  period,  new  economic  and  social  conditions  made  it 
again  possible  for  the  state  to  lay  a  guiding,  controlling  hand 
on  education. 


CHAPTER  III 

EDUCATION  AND  CHILD  LABOR  IN  THE 
EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD 

As  stated  in  the  introduction  to  this  study,  the  history  of  the 
compulsory  education  of  children  and  the  regulation  of  their 
employment  in  the  United  States  may  be  divided  roughly  into 
three  periods.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  present  a 
general  view  of  the  educational  and  industrial  situation  near  the 
close  of  the  first  period,  and  to  locate  the  problem  of  school 
attendance  in  its  relation  to  labor  at  the  opening  of  the  second. 
In  succeeding  chapters,  the  advance  through  the  second  period 
and  into  the  third  will  be  traced  in  a  small  group  of 
representative  states. 

In  the  early  years  of  our  national  life  the  small  group  of 
states  that  had  developed  systems  of  education  in  the  colonial 
period  provided  for  public  schools  either  in  their  constitutions 
or  by  statute.  In  these  provisions  the  principle  of  compulsion 
was  less  stressed  than  formerly.  Connecticut  had  long  before 
reduced  the  number  of  required  grammar  schools  to  one  in 
each  county.  Now  not  even  these  were  compulsory  unless 
determined  upon  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  community.^ 
Massachusetts,  the  stronghold  of  compulsory  education  from 
the  beginning,  in  her  constitution  gave  the  legislature  power 
to  provide  for  the  education  of  children  and  to  compel  their 
attendance  at  school.^  Th^  law  establishing  a  state  school 
system  enacted  in  1789^  was  largely  a  reenactment  of  the  Pro- 
vince law,  requiring  a  school  in  every  community,  but  without 
attempt  to  regulate  attendance. 

To  a  surprising  extent  the  American  public  school  system, 
free  everywhere  and  almost  universally  compulsory,  rests  upon 
the  early  laws  to  regulate  the  labor  of  poor  children  and  to 

1.  Steiner,  Hist,  of  Ed.  in  Conn.,  p.  35.    Law  of  1798. 

2.  Const,  of  1780,  Art.  in. 

3.  Laws  and  Eesolves  of  Mass.,  1788-9,  ch.  19. 

30 


EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD  31 

secure  for  them  the  elements  of  learning.  In  the  later  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  England  discovered  a  new  use  for 
the  children  of  this  class.  Those  hitherto  regarded  as  a  burden 
upon  society  or  upon  their  parents  were  found  to  have  an 
appreciable  money  value  as  operators  in  the  textile  mills, 
where  only  dexterity  and  constant  watchfulness  were  required. 
The  story  of  England's  shame  in  the  exploitation  of  young 
children  in  her  mills  and  factories  is  familiar.  Not  so  well 
known  is  her  splendid  battle,  first,  for  the  relief  and  elementary 
education  of  her  poor,  then,  for  the  gradual  development  of 
an  educational  plan,  now  rapidly  rounding  out  into  an 
adequate  national  system  fairly  well  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
every  child,  free,  and  compulsory.  Neither  story  can  detain 
us  here ;  both  were  roughly  paralleled  in  the  United  States. 

There  was  nothing  new  in  the  English  system  of  apprentic- 
ing the  children  of  the  poor;  it  had  been  going  on  for  four 
hundred  years.  The  ''laudable  custom"  had  been  well  es- 
tablished throughout  the  colonies.  It  was  the  new  industrial 
condition  which  led  to  its  serious  abuse,  and  only  time  could 
reveal  these  evils.  What  the  American  people  heard  was  news 
of  prosperity,  of  greatly  increased  family  earnings,  of  profit- 
able employment  for  women  and  children  left  destitute  by  the 
wars.  Factories  similar  to  those  of  England  were  being  es- 
tablished in  America.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  plans  were  under  way  in  several  states  to  utilize  the 
labor  of  children.  Alexander  Hamilton,  keen-minded,  far- 
sighted  master  of  finance,  was  active  in  fastening  the  curse  of 
factory  labor  upon  the  children  of  the  new  republic.  His 
communication  of  December  5,  1791,  to  the  National  House  of 
Representatives  is  a  clear  statement  of  his  attitude  towards 
the  employment  of  youth.*  In  it  he  emphasized  the  significance 
of  the  new  machinery  then  coming  into  general  use  in  the 
textile  mills  of  England,  by  which,  he  said,  all  the  processes 
involved  in  the  spinning  of  cotton  could  be  performed  by  a 
few  machines,  ' '  attended  chiefly  by  women  and  children. ' '  He 
argued  that  the  establishment  of  these  industries  on  a  proper 
basis  in  this  country  would  enable  the  industrious  to  devote 
their  leisure  time  to  this  new  work  "as  a  resource  for  multiply- 


4.  Works  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  313;  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  Ed. 


32    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

ing  their  acquisitions  or  their  enjoyments,"  and  notes  the  fur- 
ther advantage  offered  of  the  '*  employment  of  persons  who 
would  otherwise  be  idle,  and  in  many  cases  a  burden  on  the 
community/'     He  continues: 

**It  is  worthy  of  particular  remark  that,  in  general,  women 
and  children  are  rendered  more  useful,  and  the  latter  more 
early  useful,  by  manufacturing  establishments,  than  they 
otherwise  would  be.  Of  the  number  of  persons  employed  in 
the  cotton  manufactories  of  Great  Britain,  it  is  computed  that 
four-sevenths,  nearly,  are  women  and  children,  of  whom  the 
greatest  proportion  are  children,  and  many  of  them  of  a 
tender  age."^ 

There  is  evidence  that  before  this  time  the  desirability  of 
establishing  factories  had  received  considerable  attention,  and 
that  their  importance  in  affording  employment  to  children, 
particularly  to  poor  children,  had  not  been  overlooked.  In  a 
petition  to  the  Massachusetts  legislature  in  1789  for  power  to 
incorporate  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton  it  is  recited,  among 
jTother  anticipated  advantages,  that  **it  will  afford  employment 
'  to  a  great  number  of  women  and  children,  many  of  whom  will 


[\otJierwise  be  useless,  if  not  burdensome  to  society."^ 

It  is  possible  that  during  the  earlier  years  of  factory  de- 
velopment, the  child  at  work  in  the  mills  was  better  cared  for, 
morally  and  intellectually,  than  his  neighbor  not  thus  em- 
ployed. The  public  schools  were  in  a  low  state  of  efficiency, 
and  those  most  in  need  of  free  education  would  be  the  least 
likely  to  attend  them  unless  compelled  to  do  so.  On  the  other 
hand,  philanthropic  manufacturers  sometimes  maintained 
^'factory  schools'*  for  their  young  ** apprentices."^  To  the 
point  is  the  record  of  the  efforts  of  the  cotton  manufacturer, 
Samuel  Slater,  in  behalf  of  his  youthful  employees.  In  1790 
he  was  in  charge  of  a  mill  at  Pawtucket,  Rhode  Island,  where 
children  from  seven  to  twelve  years  of  age  were  employed,  full 
time,  six  days  in  the  week.  Many  of  these  were  children  of 
very  poor  parents,  and  **had  had  small  opportunities  for  even 
an  elementary  education."^    In  the  interests  of  these  children 


5.  IMd.,  p.  314. 

6.  Bagnall,  The  Textile  Industries  of  the  United  States,  p.  91. 

7.  Bagnall,  op.  cit.,  p.  493. 

8.  Bagnall,  Samuel  Slater  and  the  Early  Development  of  the  Cotton  Manu- 
factures in  the  United  States,  p.  49. 


EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD  33 

Mr.  Slater  established  a  Sunday  school  in  his  own  home,  at 
first  teaching  it  himself,  later  securing  as  instructors  students 
from  Rhode  Island  College,  now  Brown  University.  Bagnall 
believes  this  to  be  the  first  Sunday  school  in  New  England. 
Like  the  early  Sunday  schools  of  England  and  the  Continent, 
the  aim  of  this  school  was  not  only  to  improve  the  morals  of 
the  children  but  to  give  them  elementary  instruction  in  the 
common  branches  of  learning,  also.® 

With  the  restrictions  upon  imports  arising  from  interrupted 
trade  relations  with  England  and  ending  with  the  close  of  the 
war  of  1812,  there  came  a  rapid  increase  in  the  textile  as  well 
as  other  manufacturing  industries.  Factories  sprang  up  wher- 
ever there  was  available  water-power,  and  every^vhere  children 
were  in  demand.  Active  boys  and  girls  from  eight  to  twelve 
years  of  age  seem  to  have  been  especially  sought  after,^"  though 
there  is  evidence  that  children  even  younger  were  employed.^^ 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  children  of  the  poor  alone  took 
employment  in  the  mills.  Men  who  became  prominent  in  the 
early  textile  industries  had  acquired  the  knowledge  of  the 
business  as  apprentices,  and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  subject 
their  own  sons  to  the  same  experience.    Bagnall  says: 

**It  was  not  then  an  exceptional  fact  that  the  children  of 
farmers,  mechanics,  and  manufacturers,  in  good  pecuniary 
circumstances,  should  be  employed  at  an  age,  and  with  a  con- 
tinuity of  labor,  which  at  the  present  time  would  be  regarded 
as  a  hardship,  not  to  be  imposed  on  young  children,  unless 
under  the  pressure  of  extreme  poverty.  **^^ 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  mill  schools,  dependent  entirely 
upon  the  generosity  or  philanthropy  of  owner  or  agent  for 
their  inauguration  and  maintenance,  were  generally  es- 
tablished ;  yet  they  attracted  sufficient  attention  to  be  accepted 
by  many  as  a  possible  solution  of  the  problem  of  educating  the 
children  of  working  people.^^  The  consequences  of  calling  con- 
siderable numbers  of  young  children  into  steady,  full-time  em- 

9.  Ihid.    School  established  1793. 

10.  Bagnall,  op.  cit.,  pp.  197,  489. 

11.  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  U.  S.,  Vol.  vi,  pp.  49,  53. 

12.  Op.  cit.,  512. 

13.  For  example,  see  Heport  of  N.  Y.  Supt.  of  Common  Schools  to  Legis- 
lature, Jan.  29,  1828,  p.  13. 


34   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

ployment  were  beginning?  to  appear.    It  was  clear  that  to  avoid 
the  lapse  of  a  large  portion  of  society  into  gross  ignorance, 
working  children  must  be  schooled.     Connecticut  led  in  the 
legislative  program,  by  enacting  a  law  looking  to  the  welfare 
of  factory  children  and  requiring  that  they  be  given  instruction 
in  the  common  branches.^*    Col.  David  Humphreys,  a  philan- 
thropic manufacturer,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  and  formerly  aid- 
de-camp  to  Washington,  was  the  moving  spirit  in  securing  the 
law  of  1813.^^    He  employed  in  his  mills  at  Humphreysville  a 
considerable  number  of  children,  many  of  them  ''apprentices" 
from  New  York  almshouses.    His  system  for  the  education  and 
training  of  these  children  attracted  attention,  and  was  de- 
scribed by  President  Timothy  Dwight,  of  Yale,  who  visited  the 
plant  in  1811.^^    He  was  evidently  more  favorably  impressed 
than  was  Josiah  Quincy,  who  passed  that  way  ten  years  earlier, 
and  who  found  that  the  children  appeared  dull  and  dejected 
as  they  carried  on  their  work  *'in  a  contracted  room,  among 
flyers  and  coggs,  at  an  age  when  nature  requires  for  them  air, 
space,  and  sports.  "^^     But  at  any  rate,  the  children  in  such 
mills  as  those  of  Slater  and  Humphreys,  where  they  received 
the  elements  of  an  education,  fared  better  intellectually  than 
those  of  the  same  class  not  so  employed.^^    These  advantages 
Col.  Humphreys  sought  to  have  extended  to  all  the  factory 
children  of  the  state.    The  chief  requirements  of  the  law  are: 

1.  The  management  of  factories  to  cause  all  children  in 
their  employ  to  be  instructed  in  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic. 

2.  Attention  to  be  given  to  morals;  regular  attendance  up- 
on public  worship  required. 

3.  The  selectmen  of  the  town,  or  a  committee  appointed  by 
them,  required  once  a  year  ''carefully  to  examine,  and  to 
ascertain  whether  the  requisitions  of  this  act  which  relate  to 
the  instruction  and  the  preservation  of  the  morals  of  children 
employed  as  aforesaid,  be  duly  observed.'* 

4.  Penalty  for  violation  on  the  part  of  the  mill  manage- 

14.  Conn.  Laws,  ch.  2. 

15.  For  an  excellent  sketch  of  Col.  Humphreys*  public  service  and  private 
enterprise,  see  Bagnall,  op.  cit.,  pp.  347-359. 

16.  Ibid.,  p.  352ff ;  quoted  from  Dwight 's  Travels,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  391.    , 

17.  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  2nd  series.  Vol.  IV,  p.  124. 

18.  Eist.  of  Puh.  Ed.  in  B.  I.,  Stockwell,  p.  38. 


EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD  35 

merit,  either  discharge  of  the  indentures  in  case  of  apprenticed 
children  or  a  fine  of  not  to  exceed  one  hundred  dollars,  at  the 
option  of  the  Court. 

There  seems  to  be  no  evidence  that  any  attempt  was  made 
to  enforce  this  law.  It  may  be  regarded  merely  as  the  registra- 
tion of  the  wish  of  some  of  the  more  philanthropic  manufac- 
turers expressed  in  legislation.  There  is  little  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  there  was,  as  yet,  anything  like  a  general  recognition 
of  the  danger  of  employing  young  children  during  the  time 
when  society  now  agrees  that  the  school  should  be  given  right 
of  way.  The  law  was  permitted  to  remain  upon  the  statute 
books  until  1842,  but  its  failure  to  provide  either  for  schools 
or  for  adequate  means  of  enforcement  insured  its  ineffective- 
ness.^^ Henry  Barnard,  writing  in  1840,  reports  the  law  **a 
dead  letter  in  nearly,  if  not  every  toAvn  in  the  state.  "^° 

Toward  the  close  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury a  new  force  began  to  make  itself  felt  in  the  economic  and 
political  life  of  the  country.^^  Feebly  in  the  earlier  period, 
slowly  and  painfully  trying  out  its  strength,  first  through  local 
societies,  then  by  means  of  more  extended  organizations,  labor 
sought  to  disentangle  itself  from  the  conditions  which,  since 
the  breaking  up  of  the  feudal  system,  had  held  it  apart  as  a 
class  to  be  legislated  for,  controlled,  patronized,  restrained, 
dealt  with  in  a  spirit  of  kindly  philanthropy  or  of  aristocratic 
authority  as  might  suit  the  situation.  The  movement  was  both 
political  and  economic,  but  it  was  educational  also,  and  only 
after  it  was  well  under  way  was  a  complete  state  system  of 
education,  free  and  at  the  same  time  compulsory,  a  realized 
fact  anywhere  in  America.  Up  to  this  time  there  had  been 
no  true  democracy.  The  so-called  democracy  of  the  Revolution- 
ary period  was  aristocratic ;  it  granted  small  power  to  the 
common  man,^^  rather  it  patronized  him,  and  in  that  spirit 
offered  his  children  a  mean  and  insufficient  education  which 
was  not  always  accepted  with  becoming  gratitude.^^    **Democ- 


19.  Perrin,  Hist,  of  Comp  Ed.  in  New  England,  p.  37. 

20.  Second  An.  Bpt.  Commissioners  of  Com.  Schools  of  Conn.,  p.  24. 

21.  See  J.  E.  Commons,  Doc.  Hist,  of  Am.  Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  pp.  20-23. 

22.  Weyl,  The  New  Democracy,  Ch.  2. 

23.  Bpt.  Ed.  Com.  of  New  England  Association  of  Farmers,  Mechanics,  etc., 
in  Doc.  Hist.  Am.  Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  pp.  195-199. 


36    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

racy,  a  wage-earning  class,  and  universal  education,**  says  F. 
T.  Carlton,  **are  the  social  institutions  which  develop  side  by 
side  out  of  the  same  soil, — one  strengthens  and  protects  the 
other.  "2*  This  thesis  seems  abundantly  verified  in  the  educa- 
tional history  of  the  last  fifty  years. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  the  origin  of  the  labor  move- 
ment in  this  country.  It  seems  not  to  have  arisen  from  the 
factory  movement,^^  yet  it  was  powerfully  stimulated  by  it. 
Industrial  changes  in  the  opening  years  of  the  century  brought 
men  together  in  large  groups,  socialized  them,  made  them 
aware  of  common  interests,  and  made  economic  and  social 
comparisons  more  obvious.^*  The  workman  saw  his  children 
entering  the  mills,  denied  the  opportunities  for  education  en- 
joyed by  the  children  of  his  employ er,^^  and  he  began  to  ask 
what  rights  now  monopolized  by  the  capitalistic  class  he  and 
his  fellow  workmen  might  hope  to  possess.  As  he  sought  to 
win  a  more  favorable  economic  and  social  status  for  himself 
and  his  children,  he  found  sympathy  among  his  fellow-laborers 
and  developed  capacity  to  cooperate  with  them.  Presently  he 
found  himself  in  possession  of  a  new  tool,  the  ballot,  which  he 
must  learn  to  use  in  advancing  his  own  interests  and  those  of 
his  neighbor.  In  most  of  the  older  states  there  had  been  a 
gradual  extension  of  the  suffrage ;  in  the  newer  ones,  manhood 
suffrage  was  the  rule;  it  was  this  universal  extension  of  the 
ballot  which  gave  character  and  virility  to  the  labor  move- 
ment and  the  allied  forces  of  the  period.  It  is  significant  that 
organized  labor  becoming  conscious  of  power  within  itself 
should  make  as  its  first  demand  free  and  efiicient  schools  sup- 
ported by  a  public  tax.^® 

Before  the  working  men  were  sufficiently  organized  to  exert 
any  considerable  influence  upon  legislation,  Massachusetts  was 
becoming  aware  that  an  industrial-educational  problem  had 
arisen.     Governor  Levi  Lincoln,  in  a  public  address,  had  ex- 

24.  Education  and  Industrial  Evolution,  p.  5. 

25.  Doc.  Hist,  of  Am.  Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  p.  23. 

26.  Towle,  Factory  Leg.  of  B.  J.,  in  PuJ).  Am.  Econ.  Assn.,  3d  series,  Vol  IX, 
p.  6. 

27.  Outside  New  England  public  elementary  education  was  only  for  the 
poor.    Carlton,  op.  cit.,  p.  27. 

28.  Doc.  Hist.  Amer.  Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  p.  27. 


EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD  37 

pressed  the  fear  that  the  new  industrial  system  would  foster 
the  formation  of  an  uneducated  class.  At  his  suggestion,  the 
Assembly  authorized  an  investigation ;  a  committee  was  appoint- 
ed which,  after  a  partial  investigation,  evidently  conducted 
by  means  of  a  questionnaire  sent  to  the  manufacturers  them- 
selves, submitted  a  report  on  June  16,  1825.^^  The  committee 
found  that  in  some  cases  two  or  three  months  a  year  were 
allowed  for  schooling.  This  apparently  was  not  usual,  how- 
ever, the  report  stating: 

*'It  appears  that  the  time  of  employment  is  generally  twelve 
or  thirteen  hours  each  day,  excepting  the  Sabbath,  which  leaves 
little  opportunity  for  daily  instruction." 

The  investigators  did  not  believe  their  findings  warranted 
action,  saying: 

**The  Committee  are  not  aware  that  any  interposition  by 
the  Legislature  at  present  is  necessary  in  this  regard,  but  they 
deem  it  important  that  its  members  in  their  private  and  pub- 
lic capacity  should  see  that  the  requirements  of  existing  laws 
are  respected  and  enforced.  "^*^ 

Apparently  the  committee  was  not  impressed  by  the  fact 
that  young  children  were  working  for  twelve  and  thirteen 
hours  a  day,  nor  did  it  discuss  the  effect  that  this  early  and 
prolonged  labor  might  have  on  their  health  or  on  the  health 
of  future  generations,  though  it  did  seem  mildly  concerned  as 
to  the  intellectual  status  of  those  who  might  in  their  turn  be- 
come proprietors  of  factories. 

In  1836,  Massachusetts  passed  her  first  law  designed  both 
to  limit  the  labor  of  young  children  and  to  provide  for  their 
education.  It  is  not  clear  how  much  influence  organized  labor 
had  in  securing  this  legislation.  The  Working  Men's  Party 
had  been  active  in  the  state  and  it  is  said  that  seven  members 
of  the  legislature  of  1833  were  representatives  of  this  organ- 
ization.^^ It  may  be  assumed  that  these  men  and  those  who 
elected  them  had  been  active  in  the  interests  of  their  program 
for  some  years  prior  to  1836.    There  had  been  great  changes 


29.  Senate  Archives  No.  8074,  transcript,  Doc.  Hist.  Am.  Indust.  Soc,  Vol. 
V,  p.  57  ff. 

30.  Ihid.,  p.  58.    See  also  Otey,  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  V.  S., 
Vol.  VI,  p.  31. 

31.  Persons,  Labor  Laws  and  Their  Enforcement,  p.  11. 


38    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

in  the  industrial  conditions  in  Massachusetts  and  apparently 
a  steady  decline  in  educational  ideals  during  the  years  of  ex- 
pansion following  the  tariff  of  1816.  Perrin  says:  ''Society 
was  divided  into  sects  and  classes,  not  all  of  which  espoused 
the  cause  of  popular  education.  Some  indeed  antagonized  such 
a  system.  "^2  q^  the  one  hand,  the  employer  was  sometimes 
intolerant,  unwilling  to  consider  the  desirability  of  a  more  in- 
telligent working  class,  feeling  that  his  own  prosperity  de- 
pended upon  an  abundant  supply  of  ignorant  labor  purchas- 
able at  low  wages.^^  On  the  other  hand,  the  workers,  en- 
couraged by  union,  were  beginning  to  examine  the  industrial 
situation  critically,  and  were  becoming  more  outspoken.  In 
1832  the  committee  on  education  of  the  New  England  Associa- 
tion of  Farmers,  Mechanics,  and  other  Working  Men,  made  an 
investigation  or  rather  conducted  an  inquiry  relative  to  the 
conditions  under  which  children  were  employed  in  the  manu- 
facturing industries.  From  their  report  the  following  may 
be  deduced: 

1.  Two-fifths  of  all  persons  employed  in  New  England 
factories  were  children  between  seven  and  sixteen  years  of  age. 

2.  The  hours  of  labor  were  from  daylight  to  eight  in  the 
evening. 

3.  Children  could  not  be  withdrawn  from  the  mill  to  be 
put  in  school  on  penalty  of  the  discharge  of  the  other  members 
of  the  family. 

4.  The  only  opportunity  for  children  to  obtain  an  educa- 
tion was  on  Sunday,  and  after  half  past  eight  in  the  evening 
of  other  days.^* 

The  report  of  the  committee  representing  the  working  men 
of  New  England  stimulated  activity  in  behalf  of  factory  chil- 
dren in  Massachusetts.  In  1835,  James  G.  Carter,  at  that  time 
the  leading  exponent  of  advanced  educational  ideals  in  Massa- 
chusetts, entered  the  legislature.  He  was  made  chairman  of 
the  committee  on  education  in  the  House.  In  1836  this  com- 
mittee was  directed  to  consider  what,  if  any,  provision  should 
be  made  for  *'the  better  education  of  children  employed  in 


32.  Hist,  of  Comp.  Ed.  in  New  Eng.,  p.  41. 

33.  Editorial,  New  York  Morning  Herald,  Aug.  25,  1832,  in  Doc.  Hist.  Am. 
Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  pp.  113,  114. 

34.  From  the  Free  Enquirer,  Boston,  June  14,  1832,  in  Doc.  Hist.  Am. 
Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  pp.  195-199. 


EAELY  NATIONAL  PERIOD  39 

manufactures."  The  committee  found  that  in  four  of  the  ' 
manufacturing  towns  with  a  population  of  less  than  twenty- 
thousand,  nearly  two  thousand  children  under  sixteen  years 
of  age  w^ere  not  attending  school.  It  pointed  out  in  its  report 
that  industry  was  demanding  the  service  of  young  children, 
particularly  girls,  who  could  be  secured  at  low  wages;  that 
parents  had  put  their  children  in  the  mills  through  necessity; 
that  the  evils  resulting  from  their  employment  must  be  cor- 
rected *'with  the  least  possible  interference  with  the  pursuits  , 
and  interests  of  indi\dduals. ' '^^  — 

The  committee  recommended  a  bill  which,  strengthened 
slightly  by  the  legislature,  was  enacted  into  law\^^  This 
measure  was  not  so  strong  in  form  as  the  useless  one  placed 
upon  the  Connecticut  statutes  twenty-three  years  earlier.  It 
consisted  of  two  sections,  the  first  providli.,  that  after  April 
first,  1837,  no  child  under  fifteen  should  be  employed  in  any 
manufacturing  establishment  unless  it  had  attended  some 
public  or  private  day  school,  taught  by  a  legally  qualified 
teacher,  for  at  least  three  months  of  the  preceding  year;  the 
second  section  fixed  a  penalty  of  fifty  dollars  for  infraction, 
to  be  forfeited  by  the  offending  factory  owner,  agent,  or 
superintendent,  for  the  use  of  the  common  schools.  No  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  but  to  enable 
the  manufacturer  to  protect  himself  an  amendment  in  1838 
provided  that  no  person  was  to  be  held  liable  to  the  penalty 
if  he  obtained  a  certificate  signed  by  the  instructor  in  the 
school  attended,  duly  sworn  to  before  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
certifying  that  the  child  had  received  instruction  as  required 
by  law.^'"  This  was  the  first  form  of  schooling  certificate,  and 
also  the  beginning  of  the  use  of  the  affidavit  as  a  means  of 
verifying  statements  in  connection  with  such  certificates,  a 
method  later  pro\'ing  most  mischievous. 

The  one  outstanding  fact  in  connection  with  the  so-called 
public  free  schools  up  to  this  time  is  that  they  were  charity 
schools,  growing  in  a  perfectly  natural  way  out  of  the  English 


35.  Persons,  02?.  cit.,  p.  19.    Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  U.  S.,  Vol. 
VI,  p.  76. 

36.  Mass.  Laws,  1836,  ch.  245. 

37.  Mass.  Laws,  1838,  ch.  7. 


40   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

charity  school  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  roughly  parallel- 
ing the  later  nineteenth  century  schools  for  the  laboring  class- 
es in  that  country.    All  these  schools  had  their  origin,  if  not 
in  the  English  poor  law,  at  least  in  the  same  combination  of 
aristocratic  philanthropy  and  fear  of  idle  ignorance  that  made 
possible  the  evolution  of  that  remarkable  series  of  statutes. 
It  may  not  be  a  cause  for  pride  that  we  are  able  to  trace  the 
beginnings  of  our  great  public  school  systems  to  an  origin  so 
lowly,  but  the  facts  of  history  are  fairly  clear  in  this  matter, 
and  in  most  part  point  in  the  same  direction.^®     There  could 
be  no  whole-hearted  cooperation  of  all  social  forces  in  the 
support  of  education  until  a  common  interest  in  its  product 
was  possible.     It  became  one  of  the  early  tasks  of  organized 
labor  to  demonstrate  the  existence  of  that  common  interest. 
The  first  evidence  we  find  of  the  promotion  of  educational 
legislation  by  an  organization  representing  labor  is  in  Rhode 
Island  in  1799-1800.    Rhode  Island  had  jealously  resisted  any 
degree  of  state  interference  with  cherished  parental  rights  and 
privileges  in  the  matter  of  education.    One  result,  in  addition 
to  the  fact  that  she  had  fewer  schools  than  her  sister  states, 
was  an  unduly  large  proportion  of  native-born  illiterates.^® 
In  1789  an  organization  known  as  the  Mechanics'  Association 
was  formed  which,  through  the  influence  of  one  of  its  members, 
John  Rowland,  a  barber,  interested  itself  in  the  establishment 
of  a  system  of  public  schools.    A  law  was  secured  in  1800,  but 
met  with  little  support;  it  was  enforced  in  only  one  town, 
Providence,  and  was  repealed  at  the  end  of  three  years.    The 
law,  though  forced  through  a  reluctant  legislature  by  an  or- 
ganization representing  skilled  labor,  was  not  supported  by 
the  public ;  it  did  not  make  any  specific  provisions  for  factory 
children,  nor  does  there  seem  to  be  evidence  that  it  was  gener- 
ally demanded  by  the  laboring  classes."*^    For  exactly  a  quarter 
of  a  century  after  the  repeal  of  this  act,  Rhode  Island  remained 


38.  Excellent  illustrations  are  to  be  found  in  the  History  of  the  Public 
School  Society  of  New  Yorh  City,  Bourne;  the  History  of  Education  in 
Pennsylvania ,  Wickersham ;  the  History  of  Public  Education  in  Bhode 
Island,  Stockwell;  in  the  school  laws  of  nearly  all  the  original  states,  and 
in  a  great  variety  of  scattered  sources. 

39.  Stockwell,  Hist,  of  Pub.  Ed.  in  B.  I.,  pp.  11,  38,  57,  89. 

40.  Towle,  op,  cit.,  p.  13.  See  the  text  of  the  law,  Stockwell,  op.  cit.,  pp. 
19-21. 


EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD  41 

without  a  system  of  public  education.  Children  whose  parents 
could  not  afford  to  pay  tuition  in  private  schools  were  taught, 
if  at  all,  in  schools  maintained  by  benevolent  organizations  of 
various  kinds,  in  Sunday  schools,  and  later  in  schools  main- 
tained, at  least  in  part,  by  lotteries.*^  In  1828,  the  foundation 
of  the  public  school  system  was  laid  in  a  law  permitting  but 
not  requiring  towns  to  establish  schools  and  to  raise  for  their 
support  a  limited  and  quite  inadequate  sum  by  taxation.*^  The 
law  of  1800  had  made  the  establishment  of  schools  compul- 
sory, hence  its  unpopularity;  the  later  measure,  having  more 
regard  for  the  traditions  of  the  state,  required  nothing,  did 
not  permit  heavy  taxation,  and  was  allowed  to  stand.*^  It 
does  not  appear  that  organized  labor  brought  any  special  in- 
fluence to  bear  in  the  passage  of  this  measure,  but  the  fact  that 
John  Rowland  had  kept  up  an  active  interest  in  education 
gives  some  grounds  for  the  presumption  that  it  was  a  factor. 
At  least  there  was  a  somewhat  general  demand  for  legislation, 
as  shown  by  memorials  presented  from  various  parts  of  the 
state.**  A  year  or  two  later,  labor  unions  became  very  active 
in  Rhode  Island,  as  elsewhere,  and,  influenced  by  reforms  in 
England,  began  to  demand  better  working  conditions  for  their 
children,  asking  also  for  some  educational  advantages.*''  In 
1838  a  bill  was  introduced  requiring  that  no  child  under  twelve 
years  of  age  be  permitted  to  work  in  any  factory  unless  he 
had  attended  school  for  three  months  during  the  preceding 
year.  After  successful  blocking  for  two  years  by  the  manu- 
facturing interests,  the  bill  became  a  law  in  January,  1840, 
but  as  no  adequate  provision  was  made  for  its  enforcement, 
it  was  disregarded  by  all  concerned.*^ 

To  a  considerable  extent  the  free  school  system  of  Pennsyl- 
vania grew  out  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  labor  agitation. 
In  this  state  the  pauper  school  idea  was  strongly  entrenched. 
William  Penn,  the  proprietary  founder  of  the  original  colony, 
intended  that  both  literary  and  industrial  education  should  be 


41.  Stockwell,  op.  cit.,  pp.  30-37. 

42.  IMd.,  p.  43. 

43.  John  Howland;  quoted  by  Stockwell,  op.  cit.,  p.  46. 

44.  Stockwell,  op.  cit.,  p.  43. 

45.  Towle,  op.  cit.,  pp.  16-18. 

46.  Ibid.,  p.  19. 


42   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

universal  from  the  beginning,*^  but  his  ideals,  though  embodied 
in  very  definite  compulsory  education  laws  by  the  early  As- 
semblies,*^ failed  to  lead  to  the  establishment  of  schools.  Racial 
and  sectarian  struggles  rendered  centralization  in  education 
impossible,  and  little  remained  at  the  end  of  the  Colonial  period 
but  the  single  principle  that  the  poor  should  be  given  an  op- 
portunity for  free  instruction.  A  free  school  system  for  chil- 
dren of  the  poor  was  made  obligatory  in  the  year  1802.*^  This 
pauper  school  law,  modified  by  later  legislation,  was  the 
foundation  upon  which  a  universal  system  of  education  was 
to  be  built.  Twenty  years  after  its  enactment,  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  extent  to  which  it  had  been 
put  into  operation.^^  The  report  of  this  committee  indicates 
that  prior  to  the  labor  agitation  of  the  succeeding  decade  the 
educational  ideals  of  the  Commonwealth  were  expressed,  so 
far  as  free  schools  were  concerned,  in  terms  of  public  charity. 
The  committee  found  that  the  schools  were  poor  and  few ;  that 
attendance,  due  to  the  **  culpable  neglect  or  mistaken  pride  of 
parents,'*  was  poor;  and  that  the  measure  was  '* wholly  in- 
operative in  many  of  the  counties  of  the  Commonwealth  and 
much  abused  in  others. ''^^  The  committee  recommended  the 
extension  of  the  Lancastrian  system  of  instruction,  commend- 
ing it  for  its  inexpensiveness,  and  urged  upon  the  legislature 
the  duty  of  providing  instruction  for  the  poor,  saying  in  part : 

''  'Educate  the  poor'  is  one  of  the  soundest  maxims,  one  of 
the  most  important  admonitions,  which  can  reach,  and  dwell 
upon  the  mind  of  a  republican  law-giver.  "^^ 

In  1824,  evidence  of  another  basis  for  public  education  be- 
gins to  appear.  In  that  year  a  bill  providing  for  the  education 
of  children  employed  in  the  manufactories  of  the  state  Avas 
presented  in  the  House,  and  though  it  did  not  pass  and  pre- 
sumably received  scanty  consideration,  it  at  least  drew  at- 
tention to  a  growing  educational  need.^^    An  inadequate  free 

47.  Frame  of  Government,  XII;  Laws,  XXVIII. 

48.  Laws  of  1683,  ch.  112.    See  Proud,  Bist.  of  Penn.,  Vol.  I,  p.  345. 

49.  Laivs  of  1802,  ch.  34. 

50.  Pennsylvania   Documents,   1822,  Beport   of  Committee   on   Education, 
Senator  Wurts,  Clim. 

51.  IMd.,  pp.  23-24. 

52.  Ibid.,  p.  24. 


EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD  43 

school  law  was  enacted  in  this  year,^*  but  apparently  it  re- 
ceived little  support,  for  it  was  repealed  by  the  legislature  at 
the  session  of  1826.^^  The  following  year  a  bill  was  presented 
which  was  intended  to  provide  for  an  investigation  into  the 
extent  and  increase  of  manufacturies  in  the  state  and  to  ex- 
clude from  them  all  children  between  twelve  and  eighteen 
years  of  age  unless  either  receiving  instruction  or  able  to  pro- 
duce a  certificate  signed  by  '*a  respectable  schoolmaster."  or 
b}^  **two  reputable  citizens"  of  the  county,  testifying  to  their 
ability  to  **read  and  write  the  English,  German,  or  some  other 
foreign  language.^^  The  bill  of  1827  was  actively  opposed  by 
the  manufacturing  interests  on  the  grounds  that  it  was  un- 
necessary, undemocratic,  and  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the 
American  government.^^  It  was  definitely  supported  by  the 
Working  Men's  Party,  the  political  expression  of  organized 
labor  at  this  time,  which  w^as  demanding  better  working  con- 
ditions, shorter  hours,  and  further : 

"That  an  open  school  and  competent  teachers  for  every  child 
in  the  state,  from  the  lowest  branch  of  an  infant  school  to  the 
lecture  rooms  of  practical  science,  should  be  established,  and 
those  who  superintend  them  to  be  chosen  by  the  people.  "^^ 

In  the  following  decade  various  forces,  philanthropic,  in- 
dustrial and  political,  were  sufficiently  united  to  secure  legisla- 
tion pro^^ding  for  free  schools  throughout  the  state.  The 
struggle  of  forty  years,  continuing  for  an  additional  twenty 
years  before  compulsory  attendance  was  won,  belongs  to  a 
later  section  of  this  study. 

In  New  York,  as  in  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts,  work- 
ing men  began  to  organize  in  the  second  and  third  decades  of 
the  century,  and  to  demand  better  working  conditions  and 
shorter  hours  for  their  children.    But  apparently  outside  their 


53.  Barnard,  Factory  Legislation  in  Fenn.,  1907,  pp.  1,  2. 

54.  Laics,  1824,  ch.  88.  See  also  Fenn.  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography, 
Vol.  XXXVII,  p.  77. 

55.  Laws,  1826,  ch.  13. 

56.  Barnard,  op.  cit.,  p.  2.  If  this  bill,  passed  by  the  House  but  defeated 
by  the  Senate,  had  become  law,  Pennsylvania  would  have  led  all  the  states 
of  the  Union,  with  the  exception  of  Connecticut,  in  child  labor  legislation. 

57.  Ihid.,  p.  4. 

58.  From  questions  asked  candidates  for  election  to  State  Legislature,  1829, 
in  Doc.  Hist.  Am.  Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  p.  93. 


44   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

ranks  the  idea  of  equal  educational  opportunities  for  the  chil- 
dren of  the  poor  and  the  rich  was  not  considered.  Indeed, 
the  early  English  idea  of  a  charitable  or  philanthropic  system 
of  education  for  children  of  working  men  prevailed  here  longer 
than  elsewhere  in  the  north.  Peculiarly  offensive  to  the  work- 
ing man  of  to-day  would  be  the  language  used  in  a  memorial 
to  the  legislature  in  1805,  seeking  public  support  for  the  New 
York  School  Society,  an  organization  which,  for  nearly  half 
a  century,  was  to  educate  a  large  proportion  of  the  poorer 
children  of  that  city : 

**The  rich  having  ample  means  of  educating  their  off- 
spring,*^ the  memorial  proceeds,  **it  must  be  apparent  that  the 
laboring  poor — a  class  of  citizens  so  evidently  useful — have  a 
superior  claim  to  public  support.*'^® 

As  the  influence  of  labor  increased  some  attention  was  paid 
to  the  children  employed  in  the  factories.  It  was  recognized 
that  these  children,  working  long  hours  throughout  the  week, 
were  not  deriving  any  benefit  from  the  public  funds  which  at 
this  time  were  distributed  to  various  public  school  societies  and 
corporations.  In  1828  it  was  proposed  to  set  aside  a  proper 
portion  of  these  funds  for  the  encouragement  of  mill  schools 
where  young  children  might  receive  instruction  **  during  such 
hours  as  they  could  be  released  from  labor.*'  The  hope  was 
expressed  that  **By  such  means,  and  by  the  aid  of  Sunday 
schools,  the  inmates  of  these  establishments  would  acquire  a 
competent  education,  and  protect  these  manufactories  from  the 
character  which  has  been  ascribed  to  similar  establishments 
elsewhere,  of  being  nurseries  of  ignorance  and  vice.**^" 

Agitation  by  working  men's  organizations  continued,  and 
there  were  faint-hearted  attempts  to  secure  legislative  pro- 
vision for  the  schooling  of  factory  children.  Nothing  of  a 
tangible  nature  was  accomplished,  however,  until  relatively 
late  in  the  century. 

In  the  national  period  thus  far  studied  there  appears,  first, 
the  rise  of  the  manufacturing  industries  and  the  new  demand 
for  the  labor  of  young  children,  particularly  in  the  textile 

59.  Memorial  to  legislature,  Feb.  25,  1805;  in  Bourae,  Eist.  of  Pub.  Sch. 
Soc,  p.  3. 

60.  Bpt.  of  State  Supt.  of  Com.  Schs.  to  Legislature,  Jan.  29,  1828,  p.  13. 


EARLY  NATIONAL  PERIOD  45 

mills.  At  first  the  children  employed  were  from  the  poorer 
classes  and  the  English-Colonial  system  of  apprenticeship  was 
frequently  employed.  Later,  entire  families  moved  to  the  mill 
towns,  and  the  children  joined  their  parents  as  bread-winners. 
Meanwhile  education  lagged  and  relatively  large  numbers  of 
children  were  found  to  be  growing  up  in  ignorance.  There 
was  grave  danger  of  an  ignorant,  debased  factory  class  when 
once  the  neglected  children  of  the  mills  came  into  maturity. 

Secondly,  two  new  forces  were  developing  which,  joining 
themselves  to  a  broad-minded  faith  in  education  representing 
the  highest  development  of  New  England  ideals,  were  to  lead 
to  state  systems  of  free  public  schools;  a  growing  democracy 
was  expressing  itself  in  a  rapid  extension  of  the  suffrage ;  work- 
ing men,  newly  enfranchised  and  learning  to  use  their  power, 
were  demanding  a  measure  of  leisure  for  themselves  and  better 
educational   opportunities  for  their  children.     These  forces, 
guided  and  supported  by  men  like  James  G.  Carter,  Horace 
Mann,  Henry  Barnard,  Horace  Greeley,  and  a  host  of  others, 
were  able  to  put  under  way  a  shadowy  kind  of  compulsory 
schooling  for  those  young  children  whom  necessity  drove  to 
the  factories.    This  was,  in  effect,  class  education.    Thus  far 
the  aim  of  democracy  had  not  been  realized.    But  a  great  ad- 
vance  had   been   made   over   the   charity   and   philanthropic 
schools.     The  school  and  labor  laws  enacted  in  Connecticut, 
Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  weak,  unenforceable,  purpose- 
ly shorn  of  features  which  might  embarrass  the  employer,  were 
forerunners  of  genuine  compulsory  education,  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  all.    It  was  to  require  long  and  persistent  effort  to 
dignify  public  education,  render  it  adaptable  to  varying  in- 
terests, subordinate  to  it  temporary  economic  gain,  and  bring 
men  to  realize  that  the  modern  democratic  state  not  only  can, 
but  must  require  an  educated  citizenship.    Time  was  necessary 
for  the  development  of  the  modern  philosophy  of  education 
which  demands  for  every  child  opportunity  to  realize  under 
proper  social  guidance  such  capacities  as  he  may  potentially 
possess.     The  advance  to  present-day  standards  may  now  be 
traced  in  a  representative  group  of  states. 


CHAPTER  IV 
MASSACHUSETTS 

A  new  period  in  the  educational  history  of  Massachusetts 
opened  in  1837  with  the  enactment  of  the  law  creating  a  State 
Board  of  Education/  and  the  action  of  that  body  in  calling 
Horace  Mann  to  its  secretaryship. 

One  of  the  first  duties  set  himself  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Board  was  to  ascertain  to  what  extent  the  school  laws  of  the 
state  were  operative.  He  found  that  many  of  the  specific 
educational  duties  which  the  state  had  laid  upon  local  com- 
munities were  persistently  ignored  by  the  officials  charged 
Avith  their  execution.^  One  of  these  neglected  requirements 
was  that  relating  to  school  attendance.  The  law  made  it  the 
duty  of  school  committees,  ministers,  and  selectmen  to  secure 
so  far  as  possible  the  regular  attendance  of  the  youth  upon 
the  schools  in  their  respective  towns.  The  secretary  found 
that  these  officials  gave  little  attention  to  their  duties,  and  that 
**the  returns  exhibit  frightful  evidence  of  the  number  of 
children  who  either  do  not  go  to  school  at  all  or  go  so  little 
as  not  to  be  reckoned  among  the  scholars.^ 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  children  Horace  Mann  found 
in  the  public  schools,  or,  in  so  many  instances,  avoiding  attend- 
ance upon  them,  were  of  very  different  stock  from  those  for 
whom  the  laws  were  originally  intended.  Immigration  had 
already  changed  the  character  of  the  population  not  a  little,* 
and  with  the  incoming  hosts  of  foreign  speaking  people,  says 
John  Cummings,  *'the  number  of  destitute,  ignorant,  and 
criminal . . .  increased  until  they  began  to  press  heavily  upon 


1.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1837,  ch.  241. 

2.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1838,  pp.  31-36. 

3.  Hid.,  p.  38. 

4.  In  1848,  more  than  half  the  children  in  Boston  primary  schools  were  of 
foreign  parentage.  Lectures  and  Annual  Beports  on  Education,  by  Horace 
Mann,  p.  749. 

46 


MASSACHUSETTS  47 

the  ways  and  means  of  public  charity.  *  '^  The  children  of  these 
people  had  little  time  for  schooling,  but  were  absorbed  by  the 
factories  as  soon  as  they  were  able  to  discharge  the  simple 
duties  of  spinner's  helper.  The  common  schools  had  failed  to 
meet  the  changed  social  conditions  and,  though  conceded  by 
the  educator,  James  G.  Carter,  to  have  improved  during  the 
national  period,  *'they  have,"  he  said,  ''most  certainly  not  kept 
up  with  the  progress  of  society  in  other  respects,  .  .  .  and  there 
never  was  a  time,  since  the  settlement  of  our  country,  when 
the  common  schools  were  farther  in  the  rear  of  the  improve- 
ments of  the  age  .  .  .  than  they  are  at  the  present  moment. "° 

Even  in  Massachusetts,  recognized  leader  in  free  education, 
the  charity  school  long  remained  a  conspicuous  part  of  the 
educational  system.  Up  to  1818  the  capital  of  the  state  main- 
tained no  public  primary  school.  Since  no  child  could  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  free  city  schools  until  able  to  read  and  write, 
and  since  there  was  a  natural  reluctance  on  the  part  of  the 
poor  to  be  identified  with  the  pauper  or  charitable  schools 
maintained  by  philanthropic  groups  or  individuals,  many 
children  entered  upon  their  work  in  shop  or  factory  without 
having  enjoyed  any  educational  privileges  whatever."^ 

Not  until  late  in  his  secretaryship  did  Mann  express  a  defi- 
nite interest  in  factory  children.  Even  then  he  did  not  serious- 
ly attempt  to  solve  the  peculiar  problems  relating  education 
and  labor.  Perhaps  the  other  tasks  to  which  he  set  himself 
and  in  Avhich  he  so  well  served  the  broad  cause  of  education, 
obscured  the  needs  of  the  relatively  small  group  of  wage- 
earning  children. 

''There  are  no  exact  data,"  he  wrote,  "by  which  to  de- 
termine the  number  of  children  employed  in  the  State.  Com- 
pared with  the  whole  number  of  children  in  it  between  the 
ages  of  four  and  sixteen,  I  suppose  it  to  be  inconsiderable ;  so 
inconsiderable,  indeed,  that  if  their  services  .  .  .  were  to  be 
henceforth  wholly  discontinued,  it  would  subtract  hardly  an 
appreciable  fraction  from  the  aggregate  products  of  our  labor 
and  machinery."^ 

5.  Poor-Laws  of  Mass.  and  N.  F.,  Pub.  Am.  Econ.  Assn.,  Vol.  X,  p.  34. 

6.  From  Old  South  Leaflet,  No.  135,  1824. 

7.  Boston  Town  Becords,  37th  An.  Bpt.,  pp.  100,  105,  168;  also  Memorial 
Hist,  of  Boston,  Vol.  IV,  p.  245. 

8.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1847,  p.  116. 


48    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Mann  held  that  all  young  children  might  well  be  withdrawn 
from  industry  and  required  to  attend  school  for  ten  months 
each  year.  Though  questioning  the  right  of  the  state  to  in- 
terfere between  parent  and  child,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  sug- 
gest restrictions  upon  employers,  saying,  "They  use  the 
services  of  children  not  their  own,  .  .  .  and  cannot  intrench 
themselves  behind  the  sacredness  of  parental  rights."^ 

The  Secretary  commended  the  factory  act  of  1836  which  re- 
quired children  employed  in  factories  to  attend  school  twelve 
weeks  each  year,  since,  despite  the  lack  of  provisions  for  en- 
forcement, it  had  brought  many  children  into  school.^"  In  his 
first  report  he  complimented  the  factory  owners  and  agents 
for  their  support  of  the  measure,  at  the  same  time  condemned 
parents  who  attempted  to  evade  its  requirements,  and  **who 
hold  their  children  to  be  articles  of  property  and  value  them 
by  no  higher  standards  than  the  money  they  can  earn.*'"  A 
marked  difference  was  found  between  the  larger  manufactur- 
ers and  the  smaller  in  their  attitude  toward  the  law  and  the 
welfare  of  their  child-employees.  Among  the  latter  the  law 
was  more  likely  to  be  evaded,  in  some  places  ** uniformly  and 
systematically  disregarded.  **^2  The  larger  producers,  on  the 
contrary,  not  only  obeyed  the  law,  as  a  rule,  but  supported 
schools,  in  whole  or  in  part,  for  the  benefit  of  the  children 
employed.^^  Horace  Mann  never  became  an  enthusiastic  ad- 
vocate of  compulsory  school  attendance  laws.  He  wanted  all 
children  to  be  in  school,  and  carried  their  interests  on  his 
heart  constantly,  yet  he  was  reluctant  to  sacrifice  what  he  held, 
with  many  other  students  of  political  science  of  his  period,  to 
be  a  principle  of  American  democracy,  the  right  of  the  parent 
to  determine  what  his  child  should  do.  The  evil  of  non- 
attendance,  to  which  Mann  constantly  referred  in  his  reports, 
he  preferred  to  fight  by  other  means  than  compulsion,  though 
after  a  personal  survey  of  European  systems,  particularly  of 
the  Prussian  system  which  he  greatly  admired,  he  became  re- 


9.  Ihid.,  p.  118. 

10.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1838,  p.  67. 

11.  Hid. 

12.  nid.,  1839,  p.  42. 

13.  Ihid. 


MASSACHUSETTS  49 

signed  to  the  idea  of  state  interference  as  the  final  solution  of 
irregularity  and  non-attendance  in  this  country.^* 

There  is  small  probability  that  a  general  law  requiring  the 
attendance  at  school  of  children  of  all  classes  could  have  been 
enforced  during  the  period  of  Horace  Mann*s  public  service 
in  Massachusetts.  Interest  in  education  was  not  sufficient  at 
that  time  to  secure  accommodations  for  the  children  who,  un- 
stimulated by  law,  sought  admission  to  the  schools.  Secretary 
Mann  describes  a  school,  typical  of  the  less  progressive  parts 
of  the  state,  in  a  village  where  two  hundred  children  between 
the  ages  of  seven  and  sixteen  were  receiving  instruction  in  a 
single  school  room  with  a  seating  capacity  of  forty.  The  pupils 
were  divided  into  five  groups,  each  group  being  permitted  to 
attend  school  for  a  period  of  ten  weeks  each.  In  his  report 
Mr.  Mann  characterizes  this  school  as  so  bad  that  **in  two  or 
three  important  particulars  there  was  little  possibility  of  its 
becoming  worse.  *'^^  Compulsory  attendance  legislation  under 
such  conditions  would,  of  course,  have  been  meaningless. 

In  1842,  significant  changes  were  made  in  the  labor- 
attendance  law.^^  Heretofore  there  had  been  no  responsibility 
for  enforcement ;  now  this  duty  was  laid  upon  the  local  school 
committees  of  the  state,  who  were  authorized  to  prosecute  for 
all  violations,  the  penalty  recovered  to  go  to  the  person  prose- 
cuting. Of  greater  importance,  however,  was  a  provision  re- 
stricting the  labor  in  factories  of  all  children  under  twelve 
years  of  age  to  ten  hours  in  one  day,  thus  marking  the  first 
victory  of  organized  labor  in  its  long  fight  for  a  shorter  work- 
ing day.^^  The  interests  of  manufacturers  were  carefully 
guarded  by  providing  that  in  case  of  supposed  violation  the 
prosecution  must  prove  that  the  employer  had  ** knowingly** 
employed  a  child  under  twelve  years  of  age  for  more  than 
ten  hours  in  one  day.^® 


14.  Mass.  Sch.  BpU  1847,  pp.  107-135. 

15.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1839,  p.  38. 

16.  Mass.  Acts  and  JBesolves,  1842-43,  ch.  60. 

17.  In  this  year  Connecticut  limited  to  ten  hours  the  working  day  of  all 
factory  children  under  fourteen. 

18.  This  seems  to  be  the  first  use  of  the  word  '* knowingly"  in  this  connec- 
tion. Its  use  in  child  labor  laws  continued  for  half  a  century  to  be  a 
favorite  device  for  ** pulling  the  teeth"  from  measures  which  otherwise 
might  have  proven  embarrassing  to  employers. 


50   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

The  general  question  of  school  attendance  was  scarcely 
touched  by  the  laws  thus  far  enacted,  the  children  affected  by 
them  representing  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  entire  number. 
Statistics  bearing  on  this  subject,  not  only  here  but  in  other 
states,  are  of  little  value.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  schools 
Avere  poorly  patronized,  and  that  the  attendance  of  many 
pupils  enrolled  was  extremely  irregular.  Mann  estimated  in 
1841  that  about  sixty  per  cent  of  the  children  between  four 
and  sixteen  years  of  age  attended  some  school,  public  or 
private,  for  a  part  of  the  year.^®  He  deplored  the  indifference 
of  parents,  a  '*most  fearful  and  wide-spread  epidemic,"  and 
suggested  a  remedy  which,  throughout  his  secretaryship,  he 
continued  to  advocate;  namely,  that  all  children  be  required 
by  law  either  to  attend  school  regularly  or  suffer  complete 
exclusion. 

"There  would  be  no  hardship,"  he  said,  "or  ground  of  com- 
plaint in  the  adoption  and  enforcement  of  a  code  of  rules  for 
all  our  schools,  which  would  bring  all  parents  to  an  option, 
either  to  send  their  children  to  school  regularly,  or  to  keep 
them  away  regularly, — extraordinary  cases,  of  course,  being 
excepted. '  ^^^ 

Again,  recommending  this  method  several  years  later,  Mr. 
Mann  remarked:  "The  measure  has  proved  highly  remedial 
wherever  adopted.  "^^  This  summary  method  of  dealing  with 
the  irregular  pupil  did  not  commend  itself  to  the  legislature; 
instead,  a  law  was  enacted  in  1850  with  the  object  of  control- 
ling truancy.  Since  1642  Massachusetts  had  made  provision 
for  the  public  control  of  idle  and  unruly  children  and  those 
for  whom  parents  neglected  to  provide  suitable  employment. 
Not  much  use  was  made  of  these  statutes  and  the  evils  of 
truancy,  especially  in  the  larger  cities,  had  become  very 
evident.  Boston,  in  1845,  under  the  leadership  of  its  vigorous 
mayor,  Josiah  Quincy,  entered  upon  a  spirited  campaign 
against  it.^^  An  investigation  made  in  that  city  attracted  state- 
wide attention,  the  newspapers  entered  into  the  discussion,  and 

19.  Mass,  Sch.  Bpt.,  1841-42,  pp.  21-22. 

20.  Ibid.,  p.  23. 

21.  IMd.,  1845,  p.  29.    Henry  Barnard  in  Rhode  Island  had  made  a  similar 
recommendation. 

22.  Perrin,  op.  dt.,  p.  46  ff. 


l^IASSACHUSETTS  51 

in  1849  a  bill  dealing  with  the  subject  was  presented  to  the 
legislature.  On  the  grounds  that  parental  rights  were 
threatened,  this  bill  was  defeated,^^  but  the  following  year, 
backed  by  the  teachers  of  the  state  and  also  by  an  aroused 
public,  favorable  action  was  secured,^*  each  town  and  city 
being  authorized  to  make  *'all  needful  provisions  and  arrange- 
ments concerning  habitual  truants,  and  children  not  attending 
school,  without  any  regular  and  la^wrful  occupancy,  growing 
up  in  ignorance,  between  the  ages  of  six  and  fifteen  years.  "^^ 
Large  power  as  to  details  was  given  to  the  individual  to^vns, 
which  were  to  provide  for  suitable  penalties,  to  make  necessary 
by-laws,  and  to  secure  the  appointment  of  three  or  more  per- 
sons who  alone  were  vested  with  power  to  make  complaints 
of  violation  and  carry  out  the  judgments  of  the  court .^^  In 
lieu  of  a  fine,  in  no  case  to  exceed  twenty  dollars,  the  justice 
might  order  a  child  to  be  placed  in  a  reformatory  or  **  other 
suitable  situation."  In  1852,  confinement  in  the  county  jail 
was  indicated  in  an  amendment  as  a  proper  disposition  of  a 
truant  child.^^  One  year  was  made  the  maximum  period  of 
confinement  in  either  reformatory  or  jail. 

The  entire  spirit  of  this  law  seems  to  be  that  of  punishment 
rather  than  reformation.  Eecords  show  that  it  was  but 
sparingly  enforced,  reflecting  credit  upon  the  towns  and  their 
justices,  with  whom  a  fine  or  a  sentence  of  a  few  months  in 
jail  or  reformatory  as  a  punishment  for  a  wayward  or  neglect- 
ed child  evidently  found  little  favor. 

Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  little  change  in  the  spirit  of 
the  compulsory  laws  since  the  seventeenth  century.  Indeed, 
one  is  not  sure  that  there  had  been  great  advance  since  the 
old  English  statute  of  Henry  IV,  requiring  all  children  over 
tvrelve  years  old  to  be  at  work  or  in  school.^*  But  in  1852  a 
distinct  legislative  advance  was  made  in  the  enactment  of  the 
first  general  compulsory  attendance  law  in  America.^^    In  1844 


23.  Ibid.,  p.  50. 

24.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1850,  ch.  294. 

25.  From  text  of  law. 

26.  The  first  truant  ofiicers. 

27.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1852,  ch.  283. 

28.  7  Henry  IV,  c  17;  supra,  p.  10,  Ch.  I. 

29.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1852,  ch.  240. 


52    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

it  had  been  proposed  to  amend  the  labor-attendance  require- 
ments to  include  all  children  under  sixteen  employed  in  fac- 
tories, to  extend  the  term  of  compulsory  schooling  to  three 
months,  and  to  provide  for  a  more  reliable  certificate  of  attend- 
ance.^°  This  measure  did  not  receive  a  favorable  hearing.  In 
1849  the  law  of  1836  as  amended,  was  officially  interpreted  to 
mean  that  the  written  statement  of  the  parent  that  the  child 
had  reached  the  age  of  fifteen  at  the  time  of  employment  was 
sufficient  proof  of  age,  unless  it  could  be  shown  that  the  em- 
ployer was  aware  that  such  statement  was  false.^^  There  were 
other  attempts  to  advance  the  interests  of  children  about  this 
time,^^  but  the  compulsory  attendance  act  of  1852  overshadows 
everything  else  of  this  character.    Its  provisions  were: 

1.  Every  child  between  eight  and  fourteen  was  to  attend 
some  public  school  for  at  least  twelve  weeks  each  year,  six 
weeks  to  be  consecutive. 

2.  To  this  there  were  several  exceptions,  as :  attendance  for 
a  like  period  upon  some  other  school  or  upon  other  means  of 
instruction;  evidence  that  the  common  school  branches  had 
already  been  mastered;  a  state  of  mind  or  body  that  would 
prevent  attendance;  or  poverty  of  the  parent  or  guardian. 

3.  The  penalty  for  infraction  was  a  fine  of  not  to  exceed 
twenty  dollars. 

4.  Violators  were  to  be  prosecuted  by  the  city  treasurer. 

It  was  made  the  duty  of  the  local  school  committee  to  in- 
quire into  all  eases  of  violation,  ascertain  the  reasons,  if  any, 
and  report  annually  to  the  town.  They  had  no  authority  to 
enforce  the  law,  and  as  the  treasurer  would  naturally  have  no 
direct  interest  in  such  duties,  very  little  might  be  expected 
from  the  measure.  Indeed,  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  in- 
creased attendance  appreciably.  Perrin  says  of  it:  ''From  the 
day  of  its  enactment  until  1873  the  history  of  the  law  is  little 
more  than  a  record  of  failures. '  *^^  Yet  the  attempts  to  put 
the  law  into  operation  in  various  parts  of  the  state,  particular- 
ly in  the  decade  following  the  Civil  War,  kept  the  subject  of 
school  attendance  before  the  people  and  served  as  a  means  of 


30.  Leg,  Doc,  1844,  Senate,  No.  41 ;  Otey,  op.  cit.,  p.  82. 

31.  Leg.  Doc,  1849,  House,  No.  95. 

32.  Leg.  Doc,  1851,  House,  No.  179. 

33.  Perrin,  op.  cit.,  p.  57. 


MASSACHUSETTS  53 

educating  public  opinion.  Besides,  the  fact  that  Massachusetts, 
the  recognized  leader  in  education  in  the  sisterhood  of  states, 
had  enacted  a  law  requiring  the  attendance  of  all  her  children 
upon  the  means  of  education  exerted  a  powerful  influence  upon 
legislation  in  the  younger  states  where,  fortunately,  the  actual 
operation  of  the  law  w^as  not  critically  examined,  the  principle 
only  receiving  attention.^* 

The  forces  back  of  the  law  of  1852  appear  to  have  been 
political,  including  the  influence  of  organized  labor,  and 
philanthropic,  rather  than  educational.  Horace  Mann  had  con- 
^nneed  the  press  and  doubtless  the  political  and  social  leaders 
of  the  evils  of  non-attendance,  but  he  had  not  asked  that  all 
children  be  forced  into  school  by  law.  It  does  not  appear  that 
an\i:hing  so  radical  was  contemplated  by  the  State  Board  of 
Education  nor  the  local  school  committees,^^  while  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  teachers  regarded  the  influx  of  unwilling 
children  with  distinct  disfavor.^®  Mann's  successor  in  office" 
certainly  did  not  encourage  compulsory  attendance  measures; 
indeed,  he  implies,  in  his  first  report,  that  the  situation  was  not 
alarming. ^^  The  following  year,  to  be  sure,  he  was  in  the  way 
of  conversion  to  Mann's  view,  saying: 


34.  Illustrated  ip  the  compulsory  laws  of  Michigan,  1871;  Kansas,  1874; 
Ohio,  1877;  and  Wisconsin,  1879;  all  enacting  laws  very  similar  to  that  of 
Massachusetts. 

35.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1863,  p.  79. 

36.  Ihid.,  1870,  abstracts,  p.  58. 

37.  Barnas  Sears. 

38.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1849,  p.  33.  Secretary  Sears  had  some  foundation  for 
his  belief  that  the  conditions  prevailing  in  factories  had  been  misrepre- 
sented. The  first  official  investigation  of  working  conditions  in  Massachu- 
setts factories  was  made  in  1845.  (Mass.  House  Document  No.  50,  March, 
1845;  in  Doc.  Hist,  of  Am.  Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  133  ff.)  The  special 
committee  to  which  was  referred  sundry  petitions  from  labor  groups  praying 
that  a  shorter  day  and  better  working  conditions  be  guaranteed  by  law, 
conducted  hearings,  took  testimony,  and  visited  factories.  The  report  was 
so  favorable  to  the  factories  as  to  raise  the  question  of  bias.  It  indicates 
that  there  were  children  in  the  mills,  but  that  they  were  required  to  spend 
some  three  months  of  each  year  in  school  if  younger  than  fifteen.  At 
Lowell,  for  example,  few  less  than  fifteen  years  of  age  were  found,  nine- 
tenths  of  the  employees,  the  committee  reported,  being  farmers'  daughters, 
of  whom  they  said:  ''Their  education  has  been  attended  to  in  the  district 
schools,  which  are  dotted  like  diamonds  over  every  square  mile  of  New 
England.  Their  moral  and  religious  characters  have  been  formed  by  pious 
parents,  under  the  parental  roof.  Their  bodies  have  been  developed,  and 
their  constitutions  made  strong  by  pure  air,  wholesome  food,  and  youthful 
exercise.'*    Ihid.,  p.  143. 


54   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

**The  non-attendance  of  a  part  of  those  children  for  whose 
benefit  the  Public  Schools  are  especially  intended  ...  is  assum- 
ing a  fearful  importance ;  and  it  will  not  be  safe  long  to  delay 
such  measures  as  may  be  necessary  to  avert  the  impenduig 
danger. ''^^ 

Yet  neither  here  nor  elsewhere  in  his  published  reports  and 
recommendations  does  Secretary  Sears  ask  directly  for  a  law.*° 
It  would  seem  that  educational  influences,  either  individual  or 
corporate,  were  of  minor  importance  in  shaping  legislative  pro- 
grams in  this  formative  period.  That  an  influential  political 
element  proposed  to  go  even  further  than  to  require  school 
attendance  is  evidenced  in  a  message  of  Governor  Henry  J. 
Gardner  to  the  legislature,  in  which  he  suggested  an  amend- 
ment to  the  constitution  denying  the  suffrage  to  all  unable  to 
read  and  write.*^ 

Both  industry  and  education  were  greatly  disturbed  by  the 
Civil  War,  and  no  important  legislation  affecting  either  school 
attendance  or  the  labor  of  children  was  under  serious  con- 
sideration until  its  close.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  educa- 
tion was  neglected  during  the  period  of  the  war;  quite  the 
contrary.  Though  there  was  a  falling  off  at  first,  in  the  state 
appropriation  for  schools,  it  was  followed  by  a  steady  gain 
until,  in  the  year  1864-65,  the  total  sum  appropriated  was  more 
than  double  that  of  any  year  preceding  the  great  struggle.*^ 
But  the  towns  and  cities  felt  the  war  keenly.  They  were  called 
upon  to  sacrifice  both  life  and  treasure,  and  the  schools,  of 
course,  suffered.  In  many  cases  parents  were  obliged  to  keep 
their  children  at  home  to  assist  in  the  work.  In  other  cases 
young  children  were  employed  in  factories  in  open  violation 
of  the  law,  while  in  some  parts  of  the  state  mills  had  been 
obliged  to  reduce  their  working  forces  and  the  children,  thrown 
out  of  employment,  unwilling  to  enter  school,  often  unwanted 


39.  Mass.  Sch.  Upt.,  1850,  p.  29. 

40.  That  the  Board  of  Education  approved  the  compulsory  measure  of  1852 
might  be  inferred  from  the  following  statement  in  its  report  of  1853  regarding 
the  general  efficiency  of  the  educational  machinery:  ''The  system  itself 
needs  at  present  no  modifications.  It  attracts  the  admiration  of  surround- 
ing states  and  nations,  and  needs  only  to  be  vigorously  managed  to  secure 
incalculable  advantages. ' '    Ibid.,  1853,  p.  6. 

41.  Sen.  Doc,  1855,  No.  3,  p.  17. 

42.  Sen.  Doc,  1856,  iSTo.  3,  p.  19. 


IVIASSACHUSETTS  55 

because  difficult  to  grade  and  classify,  were  added  to  the 
chronic  idlers.*^  The  truancy  law  of  1850,  slightly  modified 
in  1852  and  1859,  had  given  towns  power  to  make  and  enforce 
the  necessary  by-laws  for  the  control  of  delinquent  children. 
Towns  had  quite  generally  failed  to  exercise  their  authority, 
and  even  now,  when  truancy  and  idleness  had  become  more 
frequent  than  ever  before,  they  would  not  take  the  necessary 
steps  to  deal  with  it.  The  need  was  recognized  clearly  enough, 
and  the  laAv,  though  awkward  in  its  method  of  administration, 
might  have  been  made  operative,  but  the  typical  citizen  of 
Massachusetts  did  not  wish  to  have  his  own  conduct  too  close- 
ly limited  by  law,  nor  did  he  wish  to  regulate  that  of  his 
neighbor.  His  attitude  is  probably  fairly  expressed  in  the  re- 
port of  the  secretary  of  a  town  school  committee,  who,  after 
noting  the  extent  to  which  the  laws  were  violated  in  his  com- 
munity, added: 

**  Would  that  adequate  means  might  be  devised,  without  the 
resort  to  legal  proceedings,  for  the  complete  prevention  of  a 
practice  which,  if  continued  till  it  becomes  a  habit,  so  often 
leads  to  the  commission  of  crime."** 

In  1862  the  truancy  law  was  amended,  making  it  mandatory 
upon  the  towns  and  cities  to  care  for  their  delinquent 
children.*^  Still  there  were  no  means  to  coerce  a  community, 
and  at  the  end  of  three  years  only  seventy-seven  of  the  three 
hundred  and  thirty-five  towns  had  fully  met  the  require- 
ments.*^ Massachusetts  lost  years  of  valuable  time  in  the  vain 
hope  that  without  invoking  the  aid  of  a  law  with  power  be- 
hind it,  she  might  nurse  her  delinquent  children  and  still  more 
delinquent  parents  into  voluntary  conformity  with  her  lofty 
ideals  of  education. 

Conditions  became  so  serious  that  on  the  recommendation 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  a  legislative  in- 
vestigation was  made  in  1863,  by  the  joint  committee  on 
education.  It  was  found  that  about  one-fourth  of  all  the  towns 
in  the  state  were  violating  the  law  requiring  that  an  elementary 


43.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1862,  p.  51. 

44.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1863,  p.  79. 

45.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1862,  ch.  207. 

46.  Perrin,  op.  cit.,  p.  54. 


56    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

school  be  maintained  for  at  least  six  months  each  year,*^  and 
that  only  one-half  the  towns  legally  required  to  support  high 
schools  were  obeying  the  law.*®  To  meet  this  situation,  the 
legislature  provided  that  no  town  failing  to  meet  the  state 
regulations  be  allowed  to  share  in  the  state  funds.*®  At  the 
same  time  it  was  provided  that  towns  participating  in  state 
funds  be  required  to  raise  by  local  tax  a  minimum  of  three 
dollars  per  child  instead  of  one  and  a  half  dollars,  as  before.'^ 
With  the  restoration  of  industry  following  the  war  many 
children  were  drawn  into  the  factories.  There  was  much 
poverty  everywhere,  and  children  who  should  have  been  in 
school  responded  to  the  call  for  cheap  labor.  There  is  abundant 
evidence  that  children  were  now  working  in  the  mills  under 
less  favorable  conditions  than  formerly,  and  in  larger 
nurabers.'^^  Another  investigation  was  now  undertaken  by  a 
joint  legislative  commission  which  had  been  directed  **to  col- 
lect information  and  statistics  in  regard  to  the  hours  of  labor, 
the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  industrial  classes.'*  This 
commission  first  sought  information  by  questionaries,  then 
public  hearings  were  held  in  various  parts  of  the  state,  usually 
at  night,  in  order  to  accommodate  the  working  men.  The 
commission  evidently  conducted  its  work  in  a  thorough  and 
painstaking  way,  and  as  a  result  was  able  to  lay  before  the 
legislature  an  accurate  description  of  the  industrial  situation 
of  the  time.*^^  It  found  the  child  labor  laws  to  be  quite  general- 
ly ignored.  Children  no  more  than  seven  years  of  age  were 
found  at  work  in  the  mills.  In  one  town,  652  between  eight 
and  fourteen,  most  of  them  entirely  illiterate,  were  at  work. 
The  ten-hour  law  was  ignored,  the  working  day  being  length- 
ened in  many  cases  to  eleven  hours.  The  commission  saw  no 
hope  for  relief  in  the  existing  laws  which  local  authorities 


47.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1862-63,  p.  44. 

48.  Ihid.,  pp.  52,  53.  The  violation  of  the  high  school  law  had  particularly 
distressed  the  Secretary.  He  wrote  feelingly  of  the  measure,  *<most  vener- 
able for  age,  inherited  from  the  time  of  Endicott  and  Dudley,  most  wise 
and  humane  in  its  intent,  and  most  beneficial  in  influence  wherever  obeyed." 
Ihid,  p.  53. 

49.  Mass.  Laws,  1865,  ch.  142. 

50.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1863-64,  p.  101. 

51.  Ihid.,  1864-65,  p.  65. 

52.  Leg.  Doc,  House,  1866,  No.  98. 


MASSACHUSETTS 

would  not  enforce,  saying:  **We  are  rnshing  into  the  same 
fearful  condition  in  which  England  found  her  manufacturing 
districts  years  ago,'* 

To  meet  this  situation,  the  commission  recommended  a 
system  of  half-time  schools,  every  child  employed  in  a  factory 
to  spend  half  of  the  day  in  school  and  half  in  the  factory  or 
mill.'^  It  was  recommended  that  the  period  of  compulsory 
attendance  be  made  six  months  instead  of  three.  The  com- 
mission recognized  that  the  working  day  was  too  long,  yet  it 
went  on  record  against  an  eight-hour  day,  suggesting  as  a 
possible  solution  a  mutual  agreement  upon  a  ten-hour  day.'* 
One  of  the  most  important  recommendations  was  that  the  child 
labor  law  be  enforced  by  a  state  officer. 

The  legislature  of  1866  went  beyond  the  recommendations 
of  the  commission  in  certain  respects,  the  law  of  that  year 
requiring  :'* 

1.  That  no  child  under  ten  years  of  age  be  employed  in  any 
manufacturing  establishment. 

2.  That  all  employees  between  ten  and  fourteen  attend  some 
school  approved  by  the  local  school  committee  for  not  less  than 
six  months  each  year. 

3.  That  none  under  fourteen  be  employed  for  more  than 
eight  hours  in  one  day. 

4.  That  anyone  knowingly  employing  a  child  not  meeting 
the  age  and  schooling  conditions  be  subject  to  a  penalty  of 
fifty  dollars,  parents  now  being  equally  responsible  with 
employers. 

5.  That  the  governor  be  authorized  to  instruct  the  state 
constable  to  enforce  all  laws  regulating  the  employment  of 
children. 

This  measure,  still  weak  in  several  vital  respects,  was  de- 
cidedly in  advance  of  any  legislation  heretofore  enacted  in  this 
country,*®  but  it  had  outrun  public  opinion,  at  least  so  far  as 
controlled  by  commercial  interests.  The  next  year  the  law  was 
revised,   bringing  it   more   nearly   in  line  with   the   original 


53.  A  system  at  one  time  highly  esteemed  in  England,  but  later  regarded 
as  a  mischievous  expedient. 

54.  The  legal  day  was  already  ten  hours  for  children  under  twelve. 

55.  Mass.  Laws,  186fl,  ch.  273. 

56.  Perrin,  op.  cit.,  p.  43. 


58   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

recommendations  of  the  commission  of  1865.  The  new  law^^ 
reduced  the  term  of  compulsory  school  attendance  to  three 
months,  but  raised  the  upper  limit  to  the  age  of  fifteen,  and 
provided  for  half-time  schools.  It  included  mechanical  as  well 
as  manufacturing  establishments  in  the  restrictions  of  the  law, 
abandoned  the  eight-hour  day,  substituting  a  maximum  of 
sixty  hours  a  week,  and  provided  that  the  state  constable 
should  detail  one  of  his  deputies  to  enforce  all  laws  relating 
to  the  employment  of  children. 

In  the  abstract,  the  law  of  1867  was  distinctly  a  step  back- 
ward. Possibly  it  was  as  strong  a  measure  as  the  time  war- 
ranted. At  any  rate  it  was  approved  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Education  who  endorsed  the  reduction  of  required 
school  attendance  from  six  months  to  three,  on  the  grounds 
that  it  was  thus  '*made  to  conform  to  the  terms  of  a  large 
majority  of  our  Public  Schools,  and  will  not  only  secure  a 
more  profitable  employment  of  the  time  devoted  to  study, 
but  also  give  better  opportunities  for  labor  and  thus  tend  to 
the  formation  of  habits  of  industry .*  *^^ 

Mr.  Henry  K.  Oliver,  an  experienced  factory  manager,  was 
made  deputy  state  constable  in  charge  of  enforcement.^* 
General  Oliver  faced  certain  grave  difficulties  as  he  undertook 
the  work  of  enforcing  laws  which,  in  somewhat  less  definite 
form,  had  been  neglected  or  ignored  for  a  generation.  In  some 
places  he  found  school  accommodations  so  limited  that  not  all 
the  children  of  the  compulsory  age  could  be  cared  for  except 
on  the  installment  plan.  He  found  mill  owners  indifferent  or 
hostile;  parents  resentful  at  the  prospect  of  interference  with 
their  affairs,  frequently  so  poor  that  if  deprived  of  the  earn- 
ings of  their  children  they  would  be  unable  to  support  their 
families.®^  Mr.  Oliver  at  once  sought  to  inform  himself  as  to  the 
exact  conditions  prevailing  in  the  manufacturing  centers.  His 
first  report  reveals  a  disheartening  state  of  affairs.  At  Fall 
River  he  estimated  there  were  a  thousand  young  children  in 
the  factories,  **very  ignorant,  some  not  knowing  their  own 

57.  Mass.  Laws,  1867,  ch.  285. 

58.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1868,  p.  48. 

59.  Mr.  Oliver  was  a  highly  educated  man,  a  former  teacher,  publicist  and 
lecturer,  and  had  served  as  Adjutant-General  of  the  state. 

60.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1869,  pp.  292,  300. 


MASSACHUSETTS  59 

ages.'*  He  describes  a  place  where  twenty-five  children  of 
both  sexes  were  found  *  *  employed  in  a  basement  room  in  Avhich 
the  air  was  hardly  fit  to  breathe,  and  the  floor,  of  stone,  always 
wet  and  cold."  The  children  were  barefooted,  ill-clad,  unclean, 
and  pale  looking,  earned  very  low  wages,  and  had  not  had  the 
proper  school  privileges.^^  He  sets  out  at  some  length  the 
attitude  of  some  of  the  employers,  quoting  one  as  saying: 

'^I  regard  my  work-people  just  as  I  regard  my  machinery. 
So  long  as  they  can  do  my  work  for  what  I  choose  to  pay  them, 
I  keep  them,  getting  all  out  of  them  I  can.  What  they  do,  or 
how  they  fare,  outside  of  my  walls,  I  don't  know,  nor  do  I 
consider  it  my  business  to  know.  When  my  machines  get  old 
and  useless,  I  reject  them  and  get  new,  and  these  people  are 
part  of  my  machinery.  "^^ 

Another  expressed  a  common  sentiment  when  he  said  he 
thought  **the  State  was  meddling  ^vith  what  it  had  no  right 
to  interfere  with,  and  was  making  unjustifiable  investigations 
into  the  private  business  of  corporations."®^  In  his  second 
and  last  report,®*  General  Oliver  admits  inability  to  enforce 
the  law  which  he  had  found  to  be  one  of  **  words  and  threats 
and  penalties,"  a  **form  of  verbal  prohibitions,"  not  intended 
to  function.  The  insertion  of  the  word  ** knowingly/*  he  says, 
offers  a  "loop-hole  of  retreat  ample  enough  for  any  transgres- 
sor." The  eases  prosecuted  had  resulted  in  failure  to  secure 
comdction  or  in  successfully  continued  appeals.  Even  in  one 
case  where  the  employer  had  pleaded  guilty  and  had  been 
fined,  an  appeal  was  taken  and  the  entire  matter  held  up.  He 
found  school  committees  and  superintendents  who  might  have 
aided  him,  lacking  in  courage  and  disposition  to  cooperate.  He 
enumerates  the  most  serious  defects  to  be: 

1.  No  power  to  secure  evidence  of  violation. 

2.  No  power  to  enter  and  inspect  places  of  employment. 

3.  No  specific  provision  for  court  jurisdiction  nor  for  man- 
ner of  prosecution. 

4.  No  form  of  age  and  schooling  certificate  to  be  kept  on 
file  by  the  employer.®'' 


61.  Oliver's  first  report,  Sen.  Doc,  No.  21,  1868,  p.  22. 

62.  Ihid.,  p.  23. 

63.  Ibid.,  p.  24. 

64.  Sen.  File,  1869,  No.  44. 

65.  Ibid.,  p.  17. 


60   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

In  both  reports  Mr.  Oliver  wrote  with  much  feeling,  showing 
himself  a  philanthropist,  thoroughly  interested  in  the  children 
and  distressed  by  the  situation  in  which  he  found  them.  But 
as  yet  few  reliable  statistics  had  been  obtained.  He  under- 
took to  study  the  conditions  by  means  of  questionaries,  but 
received  replies  from  only  about  one-third  of  the  establish- 
ments addressed.  The  data  from  these  were  of  little  value,  but 
from  them  one  may  conclude  that  the  laws  were  pretty  general- 
ly violated,  that  the  courts  were  not  in  full  sympathy  with  en- 
forcement, and  that  conditions  under  which  children  were  at 
work  had  been  growing  worse  as  the  number  employed 
increased. 

General  Oliver  resigned  at  the  end  of  his  second  year  to  be- 
come chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  and  Labor  which  had 
been  created  by  legislative  action  on  June  23,  1869.«®  While 
he  accomplished  little  or  nothing  in  a  direct  way  as  enforcing 
officers,  his  reports,  filled  with  classical  references  and  illumi- 
nated with  selections  from  Shakespeare  and  other  poets,  lack- 
ing in  specific  facts  though  they  are,  constitute  a  valuable  con- 
tribution to  the  literature  of  child  labor.  His  field  work  marks 
the  beginning  of  inspection,  though  it  required  twenty  years 
to  create,  in  the  more  indifferent  communities,  a  proper  respect 
for  the  law. 

It  now  began  to  be  more  generally  realized  that  the  interests 
of  working  children  were  bound  up  closely  with  those  of  adult 
labor.  Mr.  Oliver  had  found  that  the  provision  that  children 
should  work  no  more  than  sixty  hours  a  week  was  violated 
largely  because  manufacturers  found  it  difficult  to  adjust  such 
a  schedule  to  the  longer  one  of  adults.  He  advocated  a  uni- 
versal ten-hour  day  as  the  proper  solution  of  the  difficulty.  A 
group  of  noted  men  had  now  allied  themselves  with  the  labor 
movement.  Wendell  Phillips  had  become  active  in  the  agitation 
for  shorter  hours  and  better  working  conditions  and  had  lent 
his  sympathetic  aid  to  the  legislative  campaign  in  1866  and 
1867.^^  Garrison,  Gerrit,  Stone,  and  others  were  joining  in  a 
renewed  effort  for  shorter  hours.     Bills  for  a  ten-hour  day, 

66.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1869,  ch.  102.    This  was  the  first  organization  of  the 
kind  in  the  United  States. 

67.  Persons,  Labor  Laws  and  Their  Enforcement,  p.  102. 


MASSACHUSETTS  61 

strongly  backed  by  the  united  forces,  were  introduced  and 
passed  the  House  in  1871,  1872  and  1873,  only  to  be  defeated 
in  the  Senate,  where  the  manufacturers  were  well  entrenched. 
In  1874  additional  light  was  thrown  on  the  labor  situation  in 
a  further  report;®^  the  Governor,  now  actively  interested, 
joined  in  recommending  action,  and  in  1874  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  a  ten-hour  law  that  could  be  forced  through  the 
legislature  was  enacted.**  It  was  made  illegal  to  employ  a 
minor  under  eighteen  or  a  woman  over  that  age  in  any  manu- 
facturing establishment  for  more  than  ten  hours  a  day,  except 
that  a  different  apportionment  of  time  might  be  made,  in  which 
case  the  time  of  employment  might  not  exceed  sixty  hours  in 
one  week.  Again  the  manufacturers  were  protected  and  the 
efficiency  of  the  law  largely  destroyed  by  the  provision  that 
the  penalty,  fifty  dollars,  apply  in  case  of  willful  employment 
in  violation  of  the  requirements.^^ 

Meantime,  without  much  regard  to  the  requirements  of  the 
child  labor  laws,  the  attendance  laws  were  being  modified.  In 
1868  the  law  permitting  evening  schools  and  fixing  the  mini- 
mum age  of  admission  at  fifteen  was  so  amended  as  to  admit 
children  at  twelve ;  thus  three  years  of  the  compulsory  school- 
ing might  be  obtained  while  the  child  was  working  full  time 
in  a  factory.''^  In  1873  the  general  compulsory  attendance  law 
was  rewritten.^^  The  required  period  of  annual  attendance 
was  increased  from  twelve  weeks  to  twenty,  but  the  upper  age 
limit  was  reduced  from  fourteen  to  twelve,  thus  increasing  the 
total  period  of  compulsory  attendance  but  eight  weeks.''^  All 
the  former  exceptions  were  retained,^*  and  to  them  was  added 
attendance  at  a  half-time  school.  Enforcement  was  now  taken 
from  the  city  and  town  treasurers  and  confided  to  truant 
officers  acting  under  local  school  committees.  This  provision, 
together  with  a  definite  determination  of  the  jurisdiction  of 

68.  Sen.  Z>oc.,  4S74,  No.  33. 

69.  Mass.  Acts  and  Eesolves,  1874,  ch.  221. 

70.  In  the  revision  of  1876  the  words  willfully  and  knowingly  were  dropped 
from  the  law.    See  Mass.  Acts  and  Eesolves,  1876,  ch.  52. 

71.  Mass.  Acts  and  Eesolves,  1869,  ch.  305. 

72.  Ibid.,  1873,  ch.  279. 

73.  Advanced  to  age  of  fourteen  in  1874. 

74.  Supra,  p.  52. 


62   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

the  courts,  made  it  possible  to  prosecute  with  some  hope  of 
success. 

At  the  same  legislative  session  the  truant  law,  originally- 
enacted  in  1850,  was  revised,^'^  making  it  obligatory  upon 
towns  and  cities  to  provide  suitable  places  for  the  "confine- 
ment, discipline,  and  instruction"  of  truant  children  between 
seven  and  fifteen  years  of  age.  It  required  county  commission- 
ers, on  request  of  three  or  more  cities,  to  establish  and  main- 
tain truant  schools  at  convenient  places  other  than  the  jail  or 
house  of  correction.  The  law  also  required  school  committees 
to  appoint  truant  officers,  no  longer  awaiting  town  action  in. 
the  matter,  such  officers  to  have  sole  authority  to  make  com- 
plaints and  to  carry  out  the  judgments  of  the  court.  Truancy 
was  no  longer  to  be  punished  by  fine,  but  the  delinquent  child 
was  to  be  committed  to  an  institution  *'or  some  other  suitable 
situation,'*  for  a  period  not  to  exceed  two  years.  Both  the 
compulsory  attendance  and  truancy  acts  were  revised  in  1874, 
the  upper  age  limit  for  attendance  being  restored  to  fourteen 
and  truant  officers  being  given  slightly  more  power.^' 

The  laws  enacted  between  1866  and  1874  mark  a  notable 
advance  in  public  sentiment,  yet  measured  by  modern  stand- 
ards they  were  exceedingly  defective.  All  standards  were 
low;  responsibility  for  enforcement,  except  in  a  few  instances, 
was  not  fixed;  the  half-time  school  was  encouraged;  no  ad- 
equate age  and  schooling  certificate  was  provided;  inspection 
was  lacking;  there  was  lack  of  harmony  in  the  requirements 
of  the  labor  and  the  attendance  laws.  But  no  law  at  all  ad- 
equate by  later  standards  could  have  gained  a  hearing  at  that 
time.  Every  advance  was  made  against  odds.  The  common 
school  authorities  who  might  have  been  expected  to  fight  for 
the  interests  of  the  children  of  the  common  people  were  neutral 
if  not  hostile.  They  did  not  want  the  poorly  trained,  uncul- 
tured child  of  the  factory  and  workshop  in  their  well-ordered 
schools.  They  admitted  they  could  do  little  for  him.  The 
attitude  of  the  local  school  committees  and  teachers  is  here 
expressed  by  a  representative  superintendent: 


75.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1873,  ch.  262. 

76.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1874,  ch.  233. 


MASSACHUSETTS  63 

**  Without  any  habits  of  study,  unused  to  school  order  and 
discipline,  coming  by  compulsion  and  not  by  choice,  with  no 
prospects  of  remaining  longer  than  the  law  requires,  and  join- 
ing classes  for  which  they  had  no  real  fitness,  disqualified  them 
for  membership.  The  admission  of  such  persons  into  our 
graded  schools  has  embarrassed  them."^^ 

Another  school  superintendent  recognized  the  pressing  need 
of  the  mill  children,  but  opposed  the  enforcement  of  laws 
which  would  bring  them  into  the  day-school,  recommending 
instead  the  opening  of  evening  schools,  which  he  believed 
would  be  '*  hailed  with  joy  by  their  parents,  as  a  favorable 
opportunity  for  them  to  acquire  the  rudiments  of  an  education 
without  intermitting  the  labors  on  which  the  families  to  which 
they  belong  practically  depend  for  subsistence."^® 

The  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  himself  found  in  the 
poverty  and  need  of  the  people  an  almost  insuperable  obstacle 
to  the  education  of  their  children,  saying: 

**  Experience  has  shown  that  there  is  found,  in  the  larger 
toAvns  and  cities  especially,  a  considerable  number  of  children 
extremely  poor,  whose  daily  earnings  are  absolutely  necessary 
to  keep  the  family  from  starvation  or  the  almshouse."^® 

Carrol  D.  Wright,  made  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics in  1874,  differed  sharply  from  the  educational  authorities 
regarding  the  treatment  to  be  given  children  of  the  working 
people,  saying: 

**  Personally,  we  believe  in  the  extremest  legislation  in  this 
direction,  and  could  we  have  the  power  given  us,  we  would 
not  allow  a  girl  under  sixteen  to  be  employed  in  any  kind  of 
a  factory  or  workshop.  If  she  could  be  free  till  she  reached 
the  age  of  twenty,  mankind  would  be  the  gainer.  *'®° 

General  Oliver,  as  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
had  failed  to  gain  the  confidence  of  organized  labor  or  of  the 
politicians.®^  He  had  found  children  in  large  numbers,  un- 
schooled and  working  under  unsanitary  conditions,  subjected 
to  the  indignities  of  brutal  overseers.    But  he  had  failed  to 


77.  Bpt.  Mass.  Bd.  of  Ed.,  1870,  Abstracts,  p.  58. 

78.  Ibid.,  pp.  44-45. 

79.  Ibid.,  p.  10. 

80.  Bpt.  Bu.  Stat,  of  Lab.,  1874,  p.  6. 

81.  Sen.  Doc,  1873,  No.  1,  p.  15. 


64   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

make  anything  approaching  an  accurate  survey  of  the  field, 
and  his  recommendations,  based  on  generalities,  had  not  been 
accepted.*^  He  had  given  up  the  child  labor  and  attendance 
law  as  incapable  of  enforcement,  saying : 

**We  permit  by  sheer  and  unpardonable  neglect  an  educa- 
tional compulsory  law  to  go  wholly  unenforced,  and  we  elevate 
to  the  position  of  law-makers  some  who  are  law-breakers  of 
the  very  statute,  now  become  a  statute  of  words  only,  with  its 
provisions  neglected  and  its  penalties  disregarded/'^^ 

Mr.  Wright  brought  to  the  office  not  greater  learning, 
but  efficient  training  for  statistical  and  administrative  work. 
In  a  hasty  preliminary  study  of  the  field  he  found  that  at  least 
25,000  children  between  the  ages  of  five  and  fifteen  were  not 
receiving  the  slightest  training  in  schools,  either  public  or 
private.^*  He  was  able  to  convince  Governor  Washburn  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation  and  he  in  turn  urged  legislative 
relief.®^  A  result  was  the  laws  of  1874,  already  noted,  and  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  in  law  enforcement. 

Apparently  those  employing  children  made  a  determined 
stand  against  further  changes  in  the  labor  laws,^®  yet  advance- 
ment, both  in  legislation  and  in  methods  of  enforcement  was 
now  relatively  rapid.  In  1876  mercantile  establishments  were 
included  with  the  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries; 
children  under  fourteen  were  required  to  attend  school  an- 
nually for  a  period  of  twenty,  instead  of  twelve  weeks  before 
being  admitted  to  them;  the  words  knowingly  and  willfully 
were  omitted  from  the  statute,  thus  relieving  the  prosecution 
of  the  necessity  of  proving  the  intent  of  the  accused  employer ; 
and  truant  officers  were  authorized  to  visit,  at  least  once  each 
term,  establishments  where  children  were  employed,  and  to 
report  infractions  of  the  law  to  the  school  committee.^^ 

Meantime,  the  state  was  assuming  larger  responsibilities  in 
the  supervision  and  control  of  the  criminal  code.  From  1867 
to  1871  a  deputy  state  constable  had  been  detailed  to  assist 


82.  Bpt.  Bu.  Stat,  of  Lai.,  1872,  p.  467. 

83.  Bpt.  Bu.  of  Lah.  Stat.,  1873,  p.  387. 

84.  Bpt.  Bu.  Stat,  of  Lah.,  1874,  p.  6. 

85.  Message,  in  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1874,  p.  509. 

86.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1874,  p.  141. 

87.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1876,  ch.  52. 


IVIASSACHUSETTS  65 

in  enforcing  the  child  labor  laws.  In  1871  a  State  Police 
Commission  was  created,*®  and  each  member  of  the  state  con- 
stabulary was  directed  to  give  due  attention  to  these  measures.'* 
Later,  the  enforcement  of  the  employment  and  schooling  pro- 
visions was  again  entrusted  to  a  special  deputy,  Mr.  George  E. 
McNeill,  who  was  able  to  attract  particular  attention  to  the 
educational  needs  of  working  children.*"  In  1877  it  was  pro- 
vided that  members  of  the  state  detective  department  should 
act  as  inspectors  of  factories  and  prosecute  for  violations  of 
measures  relating  to  the  employment  of  w^omen  and  children. 
The  next  year  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the  Governor  to  appoint 
two  regular  factory  inspectors  from  the  police  department.*^ 
This  small  force  was  not  able  to  cover  the  entire  state  with 
any  degree  of  thoroughness,  yet  their  work  was  done  so  effect- 
ively that  certain  town  and  city  officials,  accustomed  to  per- 
mit young  children,  working  in  violation  of  the  law,  to  support 
their  needy  families,  begged  that  requirements  be  relaxed.*^ 

There  was  a  distinct  advance  in  child  labor  requirements  in 
1878.  Supported  by  a  state  bureau  more  adequately  organized 
to  secure  and  publish  statistics  showing  the  true  status  of  child 
workers,  by  laws  beginning  to  inspire  respect  because  of  more 
definite  and  more  positive  provisions,  and  by  a  method  of  en- 
forcement capable  for  the  first  time  of  compelling  obedience, 
the  law  was  now  becoming  something  more  than  the  registra- 
tion of  a  philanthropic  wish  for  better  opportunities  for  factory 
children.    The  legislation  of  this  year  provided:*^ 

1.  That  manufacturing,  mechanical,  and  mercantile  es- 
tablishments should  keep  on  file  age  certificates  of  all  employees 
under  sixteen,  including  schooling  certificates  for  all  under 
fourteen ;  such  certificates  to  be  issued  under  the  direction  of 
local  school  committees. 

2.  Truant  officers  were  given  authority  to  require  the  pro- 
duction of  all  certificates. 

88.  Ibid.,  1871,  ch.  394. 

89.  Sen.  Doc,  1875,  No.  50,  p.  3. 

90.  He  estimated  that  in  1874  there  were  60,000  children  in  the  state  be- 
tween the  ages  of  five  and  fifteen  who  were  not  yet  reached  by  the  school 
law.    Sen.  Doc,  1875,  No.  50,  p.  11. 

91.  Acts  and  Hesolves,  1879,  ch.  305. 

92.  Bpt.  Chief  of  Detective  Force,  1878,  p.  29. 

93.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1878,  ch.  257. 


66    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

3.  Failure  on  the  part  of  the  employer  to  require  such  a 
certificate  was  to  be  held  a  violation  of  the  law. 

4.  After  May  1,  1880,  no  child  under  fourteen,  not  able  to 
read  and  write,  could  be  employed  in  the  restricted  occupations 
during  the  session  of  the  public  schools. 

5.  During  the  vacations  of  the  public  schools  children  be- 
tween ten  and  fourteen  might  be  employed,  even  though  they 
had  not  met  the  schooling  requirements. 

6.  As  provided  in  1866,  parents  were  held  equally  liable 
with  employers,  for  the  violation  of  the  schooling  requirements. 

The  outstanding  feature  of  this  law  is  the  age  and  schooling 
requirement,  weak  and  inadequate,  to  be  sure,  yet  capable  of 
development.  The  further  advances  during  the  decade  1880- 
1890,  in  this  essential  feature  of  an  acceptable  child  labor  law 
may  be  noted  here.  In  1880  an  important  step  toward  uniform- 
ity was  taken  when  it  was  required  that  the  Secretary  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education  should  furnish  a  form  for  the  age 
and  schooling  certificate  to  be  used  throughout  the  state.®* 

In  1888  a  radical  advance  was  made,  excluding  from  the 
three  types  or  establishments  all  children  under  thirteen.®''  No 
child  under  sixteen  could  be  employed  therein  unless  the  proper 
certificate  was  on  file,  and  no  certificate  could  be  issued  to  a 
child  under  fourteen  unless  there  was  presented  to  the  issuing 
officer  an  employment  ticket,  signed  by  the  prospective  em- 
ployer, definitely  promising  employment  as  stated.  The  state- 
ment of  age  made  in  a  prescribed  form  was,  as  before,  to  be 
signed  by  parent  or  guardian  and  duly  sworn  to,  but  if  such 
adult  did  not  reside  in  the  town  in  which  employment  was 
sought  the  child's  own  signature  and  affidavit  were  accepted. 
The  certificate  of  schooling  could  be  signed  only  by  the  super- 
intendent of  schools  or  some  one  authorized  by  him,  or,  in 
towns  having  no  superintendent,  by  a  member  of  the  school 
committee  duly  authorized  by  vote.  It  was  found  that  these 
certificates,  once  issued,  were  retained  by  employers  when 
children  left  their  service  and  used  in  engaging  others  having 
no  working  papers  f^  the  law  was  therefore  amended  in  1890, 
making  the  certificate  the  property  of  the  child  and  requiring 

94.  Acts  and  Eesolves,  1880,  ch.  137. 

95.  Hid.,  1888,  ch.  348. 

96.  Whittelsey,  op.  dt.,  p.  19. 


MASSACHUSETTS  67 

the  employer,  subject  to  a  fine  of  ten  dollars  for  failure,  to  re- 
turn it  to  him  on  termination  of  employment.*^ 

This  employment  certificate  left  much  to  be  desired.     No 
proof  of  age  was  required,  the  way  being  left  open  for  gross 
dishonesty  and  deception,  yet  it  was  a  definite  advance  over 
anything  devised  previous  to  that  time,  and  compared  with 
the  shadowy  beginning  in  1838,*®  it  becomes  a  striking  ex- 
ample of  progress.    It  marks  a  closer  cooperation  of  education- 
al and  industrial  interests;  it  put  the  employer  on  the  de- 
fensive, in  that  failure  to  produce  it  on  demand  was  prima- 
facie  evidence  of  violation  of  the  law.     It  is  not  possible  to 
determine  the    exact  effect  these  more    adequate  restrictions 
upon  child  labor  were  exercising  upon  school  attendance  and 
the  number  of  children  in  industry,  as  statistics  on  attendance 
were  still  unreliable,**  but  fewer  children  were  at  work,  the 
number  under  fifteen  employed  in  the  restricted  industries 
falling  off  during  the  decade  more  than  one-half .^°**    Employers 
found  the  school  certificate  and  later  the  employment  tickets 
so  much  annoyance  that  they  were  inclined  to  discontinue,  so 
far  as  possible,  the  employment  of  children  subject  to  them.^^^ 
Very  striking,  too,  is  the  progress  of  this  decade  in  school 
attendance  requirements  and  in  the  restriction  of  employment 
during   school  time.    In  1883   it  was  provided   that  no  child 
"under  twelve  years  of  age  might  be  employed  in  manufactur- 
ing, mechanical,  or  mercantile  establishments  during  the  hours 
the  public  schools  were  in  session.^''*    The  question  of  hours 
occasioned  some  confusion,  and  the  law  was  amended  two  years 
later,  substituting  the  word  days  for  the  word  hours.^^^     In 
1887,  in  order  to  combat  the  illiteracy  of  foreign-bom  youth 
and  of  those  who  had  not  met  the  schooling  requirements  in 
the  period  of  non-enforcement,  a  law  was  passed  excluding 
from  employment,  except  during  the  vacation  periods  of  the 


97.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1890,  ch.  299. 

98.  Supra,  p.  39. 

99.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt,,  1880,  p.  cxxiii. 

100.  Whittelsey,  op.  cit.,  p.  67. 

101.  Ihid. 

102.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1883,  ch.  224.     This  bill  became  law  without  the 
signature  of  the  governor. 

103.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1885,  ch.  222. 


68   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

public  schools,  all  minors  less  than  fourteen  years  of  age  not 
able  to  read  and  write,  under  penalty  upon  both  parent  and 
employer  of  not  less  than  twenty  nor  more  than  fifty  dollars. 
Nor  could  a  minor  over  fourteen,  who  was  unable  to  read  and 
write,  and  who  had  resided  continuously  for  one  year  in  a 
town  or  city  maintaining  an  evening  school,  be  legally  em- 
ployed unless  he  was  a  regular  attendant  upon  some  day  or 
evening  school.  It  was  provided,  however,  that  if  "such  illiter- 
ate's earnings  were  necessary  for  his  own  or  his  family's  sup- 
port, the  school  committee  might  issue  a  permit  authorizing 
emplojmaent.^*^*  The  liberty  allowed  school  committees  in  this 
matter  was  not  always  used  wisely,  and  in  1890  it  became 
necessary  to  guard  the  issuance  of  the  special  exemption  per- 
mits so  that  only  in  an  unusual  case  could  an  illiterate  minor 
escape  the  requirements  of  evening  school  attendance.^*''' 

The  law  of  1888,  which  provided  for  a  more  adequate  age 
and  schooling  certificate,  forbade  the  employment  at  any  time 
in  factory,  mechanical,  or  mercantile  establishments  of  all 
children  less  than  thirteen  years  of  age,  nor  could  such  children 
be  employed  for  wages  in  any  indoor  work  during  the  hours 
the  public  schools  were  in  session,  nor  in  any  manner  during 
such  hours  unless  during  the  preceding  year  they  had  attended 
school  for  at  least  twenty  weeks.  This  act  forbade  the  em- 
ployment of  children  under  fourteen  earlier  than  six  o'clock 
in  the  morning  and  later  than  seven  in  the  evening ;  dangerous 
employments,  as  listed  by  the  chief  of  state  police,  were  also 
f orbidden.^^®  Two  years  later  minors  over  fourteen  and  women 
were  forbidden  employment  between  the  hours  of  ten  in  the 
evening  and  six  in  the  morning.^"^ 

In  the  closing  years  of  this  decade  other  laws  were  enacted 
which  show  how  earnestly  Massachusetts  was  seeking  to  insure 
to  every  child  the  advantages  of  the  best  the  schools  could 
offer.  In  the  first  compulsory  attendance  act  of  1852  poverty 
of  parent  or  guardian  was  specified  as  a  reasonable  excuse  for 
denying  the  child  the  privileges  of  learning.    Since  that  time, 

104.  Ihid.,  1887,  ch.  433. 

105.  Ibid.,  1890,  ch.  48. 

106.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1888,  ch.  348. 

107.  Jhid.,  1890,  ch.  183. 


MASSACHUSETTS  69 

in  the  revisions  of  the  law,  this  cause  for  exemption  had  stood. 
Labor  laws  had  sought  to  insure  to  every  child  at  work  in  mills 
and  factories,  and  later  in  stores,  at  least  a  few  weeks  annually 
in  school,  but  in  the  general  attendance  law  the  poverty  clause 
remained  a  barrier  to  complete  enforcement.  In  1889  this 
cause  for  exemption,  retained  by  short-sighted  thrift,  was 
allowed  to  disappear.^^®  The  next  year  the  annual  term  of 
compulsory  attendance  was  extended  to  thirty  weeks  for  all 
between  eight  and  fourteen  years  of  age,  provided  schools  were 
in  session  so  long.^*^® 

It  is  well  enough  to  recognize  that  educational  and  industrial 
conditions  were  not  ideal.  More  than  fifty  years  had  passed 
since  Horace  Mann,  in  his  report  had  so  mercilessly  held  up 
before  the  public  view  the  many  delinquencies  of  Massachusetts 
in  the  administration  of  her  school  laws.  Wonderful  things 
had  taken  place  in  that  time,  and  an  excellent  system  of  schools 
was  in  operation.  The  child  labor  laws,  under  the  oversight 
of  the  state  police,  were  enforced  much  better  than  formerly, 
but  local  school  committees  and  truant  officers  were  as  re- 
luctant as  ever  to  bring  force  to  bear  upon  their  neighbors,^^** 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  was  calling 
insistently  for  a  state  official  who  could  rise  above  local  in- 
fluences and  fearlessly  enforce  the  law,  now  fairly  workable.^^^ 
The  truancy  law  was  quite  generally  neglected,  or  obeyed  only 
in  form.  Many  towns  had  met  the  letter  of  the  law  by  desig- 
nating the  county  almshouses  as  the  truant  school.  Judges, 
however,  often  refused  to  commit  truants  to  such  unsuitable 
places,  and  so  the  law  remained  largely  inoperative.^^^  Schools 
were  actually  maintained  in  some  of  the  almshouses,  however. 
For  example,  in  Cambridge  was  a  school  of  sixty-one,  ten  being 
girls.  At  Lowell,  in  the  same  county,  a  school  of  about  the 
same  size  was  grouped  with  the  other  city  institutions,  the  jail, 
workhouse,  and  insane  asylum.  The  secretary  remarks,  *'The 
authorities  in  charge  do  not  consider  it  a  fit  place  for  the  train- 


108.  Ibid.,  1889,  ch.  464. 

109.  Ibid.,  1890,  ch.  384. 

no.  Ma^s.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1887,  p.  165;  1889,  pp.  235,  297. 

111.  Ibid.,  1886,  p.  184;  1890,  p.  97. 

112.  Ibid.,  1886,  pp.  170-175. 


70    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

ing  of  wayward  children  into  self-respecting  and  high-minded 
citizens. '  *"* 

The  closing  decade  of  this  century,  so  full  of  significance  in 
its  changing  attitude  toward  children,  was  marked  by  an 
official  study  of  school  attendance  and  by  the  enactment  of 
carefully  considered  laws  intended  to  correct  the  weaknesses 
discovered.  It  was  generally  recognized  that  the  attendance 
laws  were  not  well  enforced;  just  how  serious  the  situation 
was  had  never  been  determined.  In  1895  the  legislature  direct- 
ed the  State  Board  of  Education  to  investigate  the  subject  and 
report.^^*  With  the  small  force  available  it  did  not  seem  pos- 
sible to  canvass  the  entire  state,  so  fifty  typical  towns  were 
selected  and  fairly  thorough  examinations  made,  upon  which 
estimates  for  the  state  might  be  based.  It  was  found  that 
parents  still  regarded  the  schooling  of  their  children  as  strictly 
their  own  private  concern.  The  law  was  violated  with  im- 
punity.^^''  The  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  estimated  that 
had  fines  been  collected  according  to  law  in  the  fifty  towns 
studied,  the  total  sum  for  a  single  year  would  have  been 
$2,822,560.  The  truancy  law  was  also  quite  generally  ignored. 
The  constant  neglect  of  this  law  was  justified  by  the  secretary 
on  the  grounds  that  the  truant  schools  were  so  manifestly  un- 
fit for  their  purposes.    Here,  he  said: 

*'The  truants*  associates  were  imbeciles,  pauper  children, 
the  insane  and  criminal  classes.  The  schools  were  places  for 
restraint  rather  than  for  wise  direction.  The  playgrounds  were 
small  enclosures  surrounded  by  high,  tight,  board  fences ;  the 
buildings  were  furnished  with  cells  for  confinement.  The  dis- 
cipline was  symbolized  by  these  things.""® 

The  child  labor  laws  were  apparently  enforced  almost  to  the 
letter  with  the  exception  that  children  evidently  not  more  than 
twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age  had,  through  the  easy  methods 
of  deception  invited  by  the  law,  secured  the  necessary  papers 
and  v/ere  at  work.^" 

The  results  of  the  investigation  are  somewhat  disappointing, 

113.  Ibid.,  1891,  p.  297. 

114.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1895,  ch.  47. 

115.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  No.  59,  pp.  530,  537,  542. 

116.  Ibid.,  p.  546. 

117.  Ibid.,  p.  545. 


MASSACHUSETTS  71 

as  no  statistics  of  value  are  presented.  The  report  closes  with 
the  following  recommendations,  which  later  became  the  basis 
of  amendments  or  new  legislation: 

An  exact  and  adequate  school  census;  a  more  complete 
system  of  school  registers;  a  uniform  method  of  transferring 
pupils  so  as  to  enable  truant  officers  to  follow  attendance ;  more 
adequate  age  and  schooling  certificate;  a  method  of  dealing 
with  those  who  plead  poverty  as  an  excuse  for  non-attendance ; 
an  increase  in  the  length  of  the  school  year  and  the  time  of 
required  attendance;  further  restrictions  upon  employment 
during  school  hours ;  extension  of  duties  and  powers  of  truant 
officers  to  private  schools ;  one  or  more  state  attendance  officers ; 
change  name  of  truant  schools  to  parental  schools;  provide 
parental  schools  for  girls;  an  indeterminate  sentence  in  com- 
mitment to  parental  schools.^^® 

The  legislature  received  the  report  of  the  board  with  favor 
and  directed  that  a  plan  be  presented  for  carrying  its  recom- 
mendations into  execution."^  Three  bills  were  therefore  draft- 
ed relating  respectively  to  attendance  and  truancy,  to  employ- 
ment, and  to  neglected  children.  At  the  next  legislative  session 
a  crowded  calendar  made  it  impossible  to  reach  these  bills,  but 
an  appropriation  was  made  for  a  further  study  of  the  sub- 
ject.^^°  The  board  revised  its  bills  carefully,  secured  all  avail- 
able criticism  and  advice,  and  appeared  before  the  legislature 
at  the  following  session  with  what  the  Secretary  regarded  as 
one  of  the  best  considered  legislative  programs  ever  presented 
to  that  body.^21 

With  a  few  exceptions  the  provisions  of  the  three  bills  were 
enacted  into  law  at  this  session.    The  more  important  changes 
made  in  the  regulations  heretofore  in  force  are  listed  below : 
Attendance  and  truancy}^^ 

1.  The  minimum  length  of  the  school  year  was  increased 
from  six  to  eight  months. 

2.  The  period  of  compulsory  attendance,  formerly  thirty 
weeks,  annually,  between  the  years  eight  to  fourteen,  became 
regular  attendance  for  the  full  school  session  within  the  years 
seven  to  fourteen. 


118.  Ihid.,  p.  549. 

119.  Ads  and  :nesolves,  1896,  ch.  96. 

120.  Ibid.,  1897,  ch.  84. 

121.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpi.,  No.  61,  p.  17. 

122.  Acts  and  Tvesolves,  1898,  ch.  496. 


72    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

3.  The  truant  officer,  who  before  could  proceed  against  the 
parent  only  when  directed  by  the  school  committee  to  do  so, 
was  now  authorized  to  take  action  if  the  child  was  absent  for 
five  day  sessions  or  ten  half-day  sessions  in  any  period  of  six 
months. 

4.  It  was  provided  that  upon  complaint  a  summons  instead 
of  a  warrant  should  issue,  though  a  warrant  might  issue  at 
any  later  time. 

5.  The  truancy  laws  were  simplified  and  improved  and  the 
county  truant  schools  were  made  subject  to  visitation  by  both 
the  State  Board  of  Education  and  the  State  Board  of  Charities. 
Employment. ^^^ 

1.  The  minimum  age  at  which  any  child  might  be  employed 
in  a  factory,  workshop,  or  mercantile  establishment  was  raised 
from  thirteen  to  fourteen. 

2.  All  under  sixteen  were  now  required  to  present  an  em- 
ployment ticket  before  working  papers  could  be  issued.  Here- 
tofore this  had  been  required  only  of  those  under  fourteen. 

3.  No  child  under  fourteen  could  now  be  employed  in  any 
occupation,  for  wages,  during  the  hours  the  public  schools  were 
in  session. 

4.  The  age  and  schooling  certificates  were  more  carefully 
protected,  though  the  superintendent  of  schools  was  given 
much  latitude  in  determining  the  sufficiency  of  the  proofs  of 
age. 

The  legislation  of  1898  closed  the  child  labor  program  of  the 
century  with  a  record  greatly  to  the  credit  of  those  who  had 
brought  the  standards  higher  year  by  year.  Not  all  that  had 
been  sought  at  the  hands  of  the  legislature  had  been  granted. 
No  truant  school  had  been  provided  for  girls,  though  strongly 
recommended  in  the  original  program;  nor  had  state  super- 
vision or  state  enforcement  of  attendance  laws  been  inaugurat- 
ed, though  the  local  administration  was  admittedly  farcical. 
There  remained,  also,  most  important  of  all,  the  problem  of 
adjusting  the  work  of  the  schools  to  the  needs  of  those  re- 
quired to  attend  them,  a  problem  to  which  relatively  little  con- 
sideration had  thus  far  been  given.  The  partial  solution  of 
this  problem  is  the  contribution  of  the  second  decade  of  the 
twentieth  century. 

There  was  no  new  legislation  of  importance  in  the  first  five 


123.  Acts  and  Eesolves,  1898,  ch.  494.  In  1890,  the  maximum  working  week 
for  minors  under  eighteen  and  all  women  had  been  reduced  from  sixty 
hours  to  fifty-eight. 


MASSACHUSETTS  1^ 

years  of  the  new  century.  This  was  a  period  of  consolidation 
of  gains  already  made.  In  1905  a  commission  was  appointed  to 
investigate  the  subject  of  industrial  and  technical  education.^^* 
The  results  of  this  investigation,  expressed  in  the  present  sys- 
tem of  industrial  education  in  the  state,  will  be  noted  later. 
During  this  period  the  education  of  illiterate  minors  over  four- 
teen was  recei\ing  attention,  and  the  earlier  regulations  were 
strengthened  and  extended  ;^^^  more  adequate  proof  of  age  was 
required,  also,  of  all  applicants  for  working  papers.^^®  In 
addition  to  the  legislative  order  providing  for  the  commission 
to  investigate  industrial  education,  two  measures  were  passed 
which  indicate  the  scientific  attitude  then  coming  to  prevail 
in  education.  The  first  was  an  act  making  mandatory  upon 
school  committees  the  appointment  of  school  physicians  and 
requiring  the  careful  medical  examination  of  each  child  at 
least  once  a  year.^^^  The  second  act  was  aimed  at  the  oldest 
and  most  unshaken  of  all  the  classic  causes  for  exemption  from 
the  requirements  and  penalties  of  the  compulsory  attendance 
laws,  not  only  in  Massachusetts  but  throughout  the  country, 
namely,  the  physical  and  mental  disability  clause.  It  was  pro- 
vided that  no  physical  or  mental  condition  capable  of  cor- 
rection, or  which  rendered  the  child  a  fit  subject  for  special 
instruction  should  be  accepted  as  defense  against  the  compul- 
sory provisions.^2®  In  the  former  of  these  two  statutes  is 
evidenced  the  obligation  of  the  state,  already  pledged  to  keep 
its  children  in  school  and  free  from  overwhelming  economic 
burdens,  to  guard  them  from  disease  and  to  insure  them,  so 
far  as  possible,  normal  physical  development.  The  latter  pro- 
vision, while  affecting  relatively  few  children,  shows  the  de- 
termination of  society  to  adjust  its  scheme  of  education  to 
every  child  capable  of  profiting  in  any  degree  by  instruction 
or  treatment. 

In  addition  to  these  important  constructive  statutes  enacted 
in  1906,  two  other  measures  command  attention  as  marking 

124.  Appointed  June  7,  1905. 

125.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1902,  ch.  183;  1905,  ch.  320;  1905,  ch.  267. 

126.  Ibid.,  1904,  ch.  432;  1905,  ch.  213. 

127.  Ibid.,  1906,  ch.  502.  The  first  compulsory  medical  inspection  in  the 
United  States. 

128.  Ibid.,  1906,  ch.  383. 


74   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

progress  in  the  development  of  definite  standards  and  firmer 
administration.  The  first  defined  the  expression,  **  ability  to 
read  at  sight  and  to  write  simple  sentences  in  the  English 
language/'  the  standard  of  literacy  required  for  working 
papers,  as  such  proficiency  as  would  enable  the  child  to  classify 
in  the  public  schools  of  his  town  or  city  in  the  second  grade 
in  1907,  in  the  third  grade  in  1908,  and  thereafter  in  the  fourth 
grade.^^^  The  second  measure  modified  the  child  labor  law, 
extending  the  authority  of  factory  inspectors  to  mercantile 
establishments,  giving  greater  power  to  truant  officers,  and 
making  possible  a  fine  of  three  hundred  dollars,  with  a  jail 
sentence  in  addition,  for  violation  of  the  law.  Inspectors  and 
truant  officers  willfully  and  knowingly  neglecting  their  duties 
were  made  liable  to  a  fine  of  not  more  than  one  hundred 
dollars.^3^ 

Another  movement  which  began  to  take  more  definite  form 
about  this  time  and  which  has  profoundly  influenced  the  later 
compulsory  legislation  in  this  state  and  elsewhere,  is  that  which 
expresses  itself  in  various  forms  of  industrial  education.  The 
industrial  education  of  the  twentieth  century  is  but  a  part  of 
a  great  social  movement  arising  from  the  new  philosophy  of 
education  which  demands  that  every  child  be  given  oppor- 
tunity to  develop  such  abilities  as  he  may  potentially  possess, 
to  attain  as  nearly  as-possible  his  maximum  capacity  as  a  con- 
tributor in  an  economic  and  broadly  social  sense,  not  as  an 
individualistic  exploiter  of  the  goods  of  life,  but  as  a  social 
unit  whose  welfare  cannot  be  considered  apart  from  that  of 
society,  and  in  whose  limitations  society  must  also  suffer. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  re^dew  the  extent  to  which  mere  ability 
to  read  and  write  has  been  emphasized  in  the  development  of 
compulsory  education.  Based  originally  upon  a  religious 
necessity,  such  elementary  knowledge  became  the  standard  of 
minimum  attainment  in  every  state  and  country.  But  a  modern 
system  of  teaching  may  put  the  child  in  command  of  the  art 
of  reading  in  a  few  months.  To-day,  in  the  six  or  eight  years 
of  school  attendance  which  are  required,  much  more  than  the 
former  standards  must  be  attained.     Ijiteracy,  still  ostensibly 


129.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1906,  ch.  284. 

130.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1906,  ch.  499. 


MASSACHUSETTS  75 

conveying  the  idea  of  ability  to  write  and  spell,  is  coming  to 
mean  far  more  than  that.  Economically  this  may  be  expressed 
as  industrial  efficiency.  No  doubt  the  earlier  demands  for  a 
richer  course  of  study  were  based  largely  on  economic  con- 
siderations. The  legislature  in  1870  added  drawing  to  the  sub- 
jects required  to  be  taught  in  the  schools  throughout  the  state, 
and  in  towns  and  cities  of  over  10,000  population  made  free 
instruction  in  both  industrial  and  mechanical  drawing  com- 
pulsory.^^^  A  special  state  agent  was  brought  from  England^^^ 
to  direct  and  supervise  the  work  in  the  schools  and  to  instruct 
teachers.^^^  This  action  was  stimulated  by  a  petition,  signed 
by  manufacturers  and  other  business  men,  presented  to  the 
legislature  in  1869.  These  men  were  thinking  of  the  specific 
industrial  needs  of  the  state,  and  were  not  petitioning  in  be- 
half of  the  children;  development  of  skill  in  the  interests  of 
commercial  leadership  was  the  aim.^^*  In  1882  a  committee 
appointed  by  the  state  board  to  look  into  the  subject  of  in- 
dustrial education,  reported  in  favor  of  manual  training,  not 
for  its  specific  trade  value,  but  as  a  part  of  a  geneial  pre- 
liminary education.^^^  In  1884,  instruction  in  manual  work 
was  authorized  by  law%  in  1895  it  was  required  in  high  schools 
in  cities  of  over  20,000,  and  three  years  later  in  both  elementary 
and  high  schools  in  such  cities.  By  1906  manual  arts  of  some 
sort  was  a  part  of  the  elementary  course  of  study,  not  only  in 
the  cities  required  by  law  to  maintain  it,  but  in  fifty-nine 
smaller  towns  as  well.^^^ 

There  was  at  this  time  considerable  dissatisfaction  with  the 
results  of  the  industrial  work  already  attempted.  The  law  re- 
quiring manual  training  in  both  high  and  elementary  schools 
in  the  larger  towns  and  cities,  while  complied  with  in  many 
places,  carried  no  provision  for  enforcement,  and  in  certain 
cities  its  terms  were  entirely  ignored  or  only  partially  met.*" 


131.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1870,  ch.  248. 

132.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  No.  35,  p.  109.    Mr.  Walter  Smith,  head  master  of  the 
School  of  Arts,  Leeds,  was  the  first  state  agent  of  drawing. 

133.  Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  No.  34,  p.  163  ff. 

134.  Ibid.,  No.  34,  p.  143. 

135.  Ibid.,  No.  46,  p.  156. 

136.  Ibid.,  No.  71,  p.  189. 

137.  Eeport  of  Commission  on  Industrial  and  Technical  Education,  p.  14. 


76    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

There  was  a  feeling  that  relatively  few  children  destined  to 
become  industrial  workers  were  gaining  what  the  advocates 
of  the  law  had  intended  for  them;  that  the  prevailing  educa- 
tion of  the  schools  was  not  such  as  might  best  insure  to  the 
state  her  industrial  leadership. 

Again  the  demand  for  a  new  order  in  education  came  from 
the  business  interests  rather  than  from  those  in  charge  of  the 
schools.  The  legislature  in  1905  directed  the  governor  to  ap- 
point a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  subject  of  industrial 
and  technical  education.^^^  Governor  William  L.  Douglas,  him- 
self a  manufacturer,  appointed  the  commission  which,  under 
the  direction  of  its  chairman,  Carrol  D.  Wright,  made  an  ex- 
tensive study  of  industry  in  the  state,  and  of  the  industrial 
aspects  of  education.  A  sub-committee  was  appointed  to  have 
special  charge  of  an  investigation  into  the  condition  and  needs 
of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen.^^^ 

The  investigation  of  the  sub-committee  covered  forty-three 
cities  and  towns  representing  every  section  of  the  state.  No 
fewer  than  5,459  children  w^ere  followed  into  3,157  different 
homes  and  into  354  establishments  representing  55  industries. 
It  was  found  that  about  25,000  children  betw^een  fourteen  and 
sixteen  were  either  at  work  or  were  out  of  school  and  idle. 
Of  these,  five-sixths  had  not  had  schooling  equivalent  to  that 
of  the  grammar  grades,  hence  could  not  have  profited  by  such 
industrial  training  as  the  schools  were  supposed  to  offer.  One- 
third  of  these  children  left  school  to  enter  upon  unskilled  in- 
dustries; nearly  all  the  rest  were  engaged  in  work  requiring 
only  low  grade  skill,  work  consisting  of  constant  repetition  of 
some  simple,  single  process  easily  and  quickly  learned.  Only 
two  per  cent  had  entered  high  grade  industries.^*^ 

The  commission  held  twenty  public  hearings  throughout  the 
state  in  as  many  industrial  centers,  meeting  hundreds  of  manu- 
facturers and  their  employees.  It  appeared  that  everywhere 
there  w^as  a  lack  of  skilled  workmen  and  of  'industrial  in- 


138.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1905,  ch.  94. 

139.  Though  Massachusetts  long  delayed  a  state-wide  program  of  compul- 
sory education  for  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  who  are  engaged 
in  her  industries,  the  work  inaugurated  by  this  commission  has  been  so  far- 
reaching  in  its  influence  as  to  warrant  brief  consideration  in  this  study. 

140.  Beport  of  the  Commission,  pp.  25-28. 


MASSACHUSETTS  77 

telligence.'*  After  a  careful  consideration  of  the  entire  in- 
dustrial-ed)icational  situation  the  commission  concluded  that 
a  radical  modification  in  the  school  system  was  required.  It 
was  proposed  that  both  instruction  and  practice  in  the  elements 
of  productive  industry  should  have  a  place  in  elementary 
schools;  that  in  the  high  schools,  mathematics,  the  sciences, 
and  drawing  should  be  presented  with  particular  reference  to 
local  industrial  life.  It  was  further  proposed  that  in  existing 
schools  much  larger  place  be  given  to  both  instruction  and 
practice  in  the  elements  of  productive  industry,  and  that,  in 
addition,  there  should  be  created  a  separate  systeni  of  in- 
dustrial education,  with  part-time  or  continuation  schools  for 
children  already  employed.^*^ 

Though  the  commission  did  not  definitely  recommend  com- 
pulsory attendance  upon  the  proposed  industrial  schools,  em- 
ployers, though  apparently  favorable  to  some  form  of  in- 
dustrial education,  began  to  insist  at  once  that  if  working 
children  be  required  to  attend,  it  be  upon  evening  sessions 
only.^*^  At  the  same  time  labor  organizations  were  inclined  to 
look  with  suspicion  upon  the  program.  They  feared  that  the 
proposed  schools,  frequently  referred  to  as  **scab  hatcheries," 
would  turn  out  workmen  in  such  numbers  as  to  affect  the  labor 
market.^*^ 

However,  on  recommendation  of  the  commission,  the  legis- 
lature made  provision  for  a  permanent  board  or  commission 
on  industrial  education  which,  cooperating  with  local  author- 
ities, undertook  to  establish  industrial  state  aided  schools  in 
the  more  important  manufacturing  centers.^** 

The  separate  industrial  school  system  was  maintained  for 
only  three  years.  In  1909  the  State  Board  of  Education  was 
reorganized,  taking  its  present  form.  To  it  were  assigned  the 
powers  and  duties  of  the  Industrial  Commission.  The  ex- 
ecutive officer,  instead  of  secretary  of  the  board,  became  com- 
missioner of  education,  and  it  was  provided  that  one  of  his 


141.  Ept.  Com.  on  Indust.  and  Tech.  Ed.,  pp.  18-22. 

142.  Second  Bpt.,  Com.  on  Indust.  Ed.,  p.  626. 

143.  Report  of  the  first  commission,  pp.  6,  7. 

144.  Mass.  Acts  and  Resolves,  1906,  ch.  505.  This  dual  form  of  organization 
was  adopted  by  Wisconsin  in  1911. 


78   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

two  deputies  should  be  especially  qualified  to  deal  with  in- 
dustrial education.^*' 

In  many  of  the  cities  part-time  classes  were  established  by 
local  boards,  mostly  in  the  evening,  but  attendance  remained 
entirely  voluntary.  The  evening  schools  perhaps  served  the 
purpose  intended.  They  offered  further  educational  oppor- 
tunity to  ambitious  boys  and  girls  who,  obliged  to  work  dur- 
ing the  day,  were  willing  to  devote  their  evenings  to  self- 
improvement.  They  could  do  nothing  for  the  great  masses 
of  young  workers  who  lacked  motive  or  physical  strength  to 
undertake  the  double  burden.  Wisconsin  had  established  con- 
tinuation schools  and  was  requiring  the  attendance  of  children 
working  under  employment  certificates,"®  but  in  Massachu- 
setts action  so  radical  in  character  was  not  to  be  expected. 
The  situation,  clearly  demanding  compulsion  in  the  higher 
interests  of  her  working  children,  was  met  with  the  conserva- 
tism and  the  regard  for  community  rights  which  have  ever 
distinguished  the  commonwealth.  In  1913  the  legislature 
authorized  towns  and  cities  maintaining  continuation  schools 
to  require  the  attendance  of  all  between  fourteen  and  sixteen, 
to  whom  working  papers  had  been  issued  and  who  were 
regularly  employed.  Attendance  was  to  be  for  not  less  than 
four  hours  a  week,  and  on  a  working  day  between  eight  in 
the  morning  and  six  in  the  afternoon.  It  was  required  that 
the  time  spent  in  school  be  included  as  a  part  of  the  forty- 
eight  hours,  during  which  the  child  might  legally  be  em- 
ployed."^ To  encourage  the  establishment  of  such  schools  the 
state  undertook  to  pay  to  the  community  a  sum  equal  to  one- 
half  the  cost  of  maintenance. 

Boston  was  the  only  city  to  invoke  the  compulsory  pro- 
visions of  this  law.  Several  attempts  were  made  to  require 
attendance  under  general  statute,  but  hostile  influences  success- 
fully resisted  the  movement  until  the  legislative  session  of 
1919,  when  continuation  schools  were  made  compulsory 
throughout  the  state  and  attendance  required  of  all  children 
between  fourteen  and  sixteen  employed  on  certificate. 


145.  Ibid.,  1909,  ch.  457.    Mass.  Sch.  Bpt.,  No.  74,  p.  84. 

146.  Investigating  committee  appointed,  1909;  schools  established,  1911. 

147.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1913,  ch.  805. 


MASSACHUSETTS  79 

As  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  other  states,  so  in 
Massachusetts  there  has  been  in  recent  years  a  distinct  move- 
ment toward  centralization  of  the  powers  of  government.  In 
1912  the  diverse  authorities  to  which  had  been  assigned  the 
duty  of  administering  the  labor  laws  were  consolidated  in  a 
new  body,  a  State  Board  of  Labor  and  Industries.^*®  Five 
persons  constitute  this  board,  of  whom  one  must  be  an  em- 
ployer of  labor,  one  a  wage-earner,  one  a  physician  or  a  sani- 
tary engineer,  and  at  least  one  a  woman. 

The  following  year  the  school  attendance  law  was  strength- 
ened in  certain  details,^*^  and  the  provisions  for  employment 
certificates  so  revised  as  to  require  a  new  certificate  in  case 
a  child  under  sixteen  sought  a  new  place  of  employment.^**" 
It  was  required  that,  on  termination  of  employment,  the  cer- 
tificate be  returned  within  two  days  to  the  office  of  the  school 
superintendent  issuing  it. 

As  amended,  the  child  labor  laws  were  more  readily  en- 
forceable, and  the  new  board  of  labor  and  industry,  while  dis- 
posed to  favor  employers  so  far  as  possible,  announced  its 
intention  of  eliminating  the  illegal  labor  of  children.  Em- 
ployers were  assured,  however,  that  there  would  be  no  prosecu- 
tions imtil  all  had  been  fully  informed  as  to  changes  in 
requirements.^*^ 

Lack  of  harmony  in  the  board  led  to  an  almost  complete 
change  in  its  personnel  within  the  second  year  of  its  existence. 
Its  first  report  was  signed  by  four  of  its  five  members,  the  dis- 
senting member,  Mr.  Channing  Smith,  the  representative  of 
the  manufacturers,  submitting  a  minority  report  which  throws 
considerable  light  upon  the  industrial  situation.  Its  language 
is  that  of  the  benevolent  manufacturer  of  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  who,  while  growing  rich  from  the  labor  of 


148.  Ibid.f  1912,  ch.  726.  The  board  took  over  the  powers  and  duties  with 
reference  to  the  enforcement  of  laws  relating  to  labor  formerly  exercised  by 
the  district  police,  the  state  board  of  health,  and  the  inspectors  of  factories 
and  public  buildings. 

149.  Acts  of  1913,  ch.  779. 

150.  Ibid.,  ch.  779.  The  employment  certificate  of  1913,  carefully  guarded 
at  nearly  every  essential  point,  should  be  compared  with  the  first  certificate 
of  1838,  designed  to  favor  the  employer,  and  to  protect  him  in  case  of 
prosecution.    Supra,  p.  39. 

151.  First  An.  Bpt.,  State  Board  of  Labor  and  Industry,  p.  9.    - 


80   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

children,  saw  in  constant  employment  not  accompanied  by  too 
much  schooling  the  highest  interests  of  the  toilers.  The  new 
law,  Mr.  Smith  maintained,  had  thrown  17,000  children  out  of 
employment  in  the  four  months  of  its  operation.  Few  had  re- 
turned to  school  and  in  the  idleness  of  the  others  there  was 
personal  and  social  danger.  **My  sympathies,**  he  said,  **go 
to  the  rank  and  file  of  labor,  to  whom  no  one  seems  to  lend  a 
helping  hand  against  the  misguided  efforts  of  paid  agitators, 
social  workers  and  professional  politicians.** 

He  was  deeply  stirred  by  the  contemplation  of  the  sufferings 
of  fathers  and  mothers  of  large  families,  whose  income  was 
now  seriously  reduced,  and  he  demanded  for  such  parents  the 
continued  benefits  of  the  earnings  of  their  children.  He  re- 
ferred to  the  good  old  days  when  boys  and  girls  were  brought 
up  in  honest  industry,  adding,  *'and  those  were  the  days  when 
men  and  women  were  produced.*'  Mr.  Smith  objected  to  con- 
tinuing the  child  in  school  after  he  had  attained  a  fair  knowl- 
edge of  the  common  branches,  saying : 

''Massachusetts  is  duty  bound  to  give  each  of  its  children 
a  good  common  school  education,  and  by  this  I  mean  more  of 
the  old-fashioned  grounding  in  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic, and  more  benefit  will  be  gained  for  the  child  by  doing 
this  than  by  raising  the  school  age  to  sixteen  years,  and  putting 
in  all  the  frills  and  fancies  which  go  with  the  modern  school 
education. 

'*lf  Massachusetts  is  to  continue  to  be  a  leader  industrially 
we  must  call  a  halt  on  the  theorist  and  faddist, — people  who 
have  been  eagerly  working  overtime  in  building  up  an  industry 
of  their  own, — an  industry  of  busy  bodies  who  countenance 
attacks  upon  and  seem  delighted  at  the  handicapping  of  the 
legitimate  industries  of  the  state  and  nation.  **^^2 

The  Board,  practically  re-constituted  in  1915,  carried  out 
the  policies  announced  in  the  first  annual  report.  Employers 
were  instructed  in  the  new  requirements  and  inspectors  con- 
tinued to  seek  their  friendly  cooperation.  Many  orders  as  to 
the  employment  of  children  were  issued,  but  prosecutions  v/ere 
rare.^^^ 


152.  The  Eeport,  pp.  23-27. 

153.  Third  An.  Bpt.  Bu.  Indust.  and  Lab.,  p.  9.  Of  7,096  orders  issued 
during  this  year,  6,500  bore  directly  upon  the  conditions  under  which  women 
and  children  were  employed.  There  were  three  prosecutions  for  the  em- 
ployment of  children  under  fourteen. 


MASSACHUSETTS  81 

Between  1913  and  1916  several  minor  changes  were  made  in 
the  child  labor  and  schooling  laws.  There  appears  a  tendency 
to  adjust  the  requirements  to  meet  the  demands  of  special 
groups  of  persons  upon  whom  the  legislation  of  1913  worked 
real  or  fancied  hardship.  For  example,  it  was  provided  that 
the  local  superintendent  might  issue  papers  to  a  child  who, 
though  of  legal  working  age,  had  not  attained  to  the  standard 
of  scholarship  required  by  law,  if  in  the  judgment  of  the 
issuing  officers  the  child  was  not  capable  of  acquiring  the  pre- 
scribed learning.^^*  A  year  later  the  law  was  amended,  giving 
the  local  school  superintendent  power  to  excuse  double  the 
number  of  absences  formerly  permitted  in  any  period  of  six 
months."' 

But  the  most  conspicuous  example  of  relaxation  in  the  stand- 
ards of  1913  is  a  measure  passed  in  1916  authorizing  the  is- 
suance of  working  papers  good  for  the  summer  vacation  only, 
to  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  not  able  to  meet  the 
scholastic  requirement.^'*  Expert  students  of  the  problems  of 
child  labor  are  almost  unanimous  in  the  condemnation  of 
vacation  working  permits.  The  enactment  of  this  law  was  re- 
garded as  a  distinct  step  backward.  Its  author  claimed  as  its 
chief  advantage  the  relief  afforded  to  children  of  foreign  birth 
who  had  not  been  able  to  reach  the  fourth  grade  in  the  public 
schools  and  who,  though  of  legal  age,  were  forced  to  remain 
idle  during  the  summer.^'^ 

But  two  of  the  more  recent  changes  in  the  Massachusetts 
laws  relating  to  education  have  direct  bearing  upon  this  study. 
In  the  year  1909  the  child  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  apply- 
ing for  working  papers  was  required  to  present  a  school  record 
showing  that  he  was  eligible  for  classification  in  the  fourth 
grade  of  the  public  schools.  In  1919  the  law  was  amended, 
providing  that  the  applicant  must  be  able  to  classify  in  the 


154.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1914,  ch.  580.  . 

155.  Ibid.,  1915,  ch.  8.  Absences  amounting  to  seven  days  were  now  per- 
mitted. 

156.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1916,  ch.  66.  This  bill  was  drafted  by  W.  H. 
Perry,  superintendent  of  the  Leominster  public  schools;  its  passage  was 
resisted  by  the  social  workers  of  the  state,  but  urged  by  many  manufac- 
turers. 

157.  Leominster  Enterprise,  May  17,  1916. 


82   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

sixth  grade.^'®  The  second  change  especially  significant  at 
this  time,  was  the  extension  of  the  part-time  or  continuation 
school  law  to  the  entire  state,  making  the  establishment  of  such 
schools  obligatory  in  all  towns  and  cities  in  which  as  many 
as  two  hundred  minors  under  sixteen  are  legally  employed.^'" 

The  law  provides  that  any  such  minor,  whether  employed 
at  home  or  elsewhere,  shall  attend  continuation  school,  if  one 
be  established  in  the  community  of  employment,  for  at  least 
four  hours  each  week,  this  time  being  included  as  a  part  of 
the  number  of  hours  he  is  permitted,  under  the  law,  to  work. 
If  temporarily  out  of  employment,  the  youth  is  required  to  be 
in  school  full  time. 

The  state  offers  financial  aid  to  the  extent  of  half  the  total 
sum  raised  by  local  taxation  and  expended  for  the  maintenance 
of  continuation  schools  or  classes,  provided  the  work  and  the 
equipment  are  approved  by  the  State  Board  of  Education.  If 
a  community  required  under  the  law  to  establish  such  a  school 
should  fail  to  do  so,  it  may  be  compelled  to  forfeit  a  sum  equal 
to  twice  that  estimated  by  the  State  Board  of  Education  as 
necessary  properly  to  establish  and  maintain  such  a  school. 
Three-fifths  of  this  forfeiture  shall  then  be  turned  over  to  the 
local  school  committee  to  be  used  by  it  for  the  maintenance 
of  a  continuation  school  precisely  as  though  the  sum  had  been 
appropriated  by  the  city  or  town  for  that  purpose. ^^° 

The  law  required  that  continuation  schools  should  be  put  in 
operation  at  the  beginning  of  the  school  year,  1920-1921.  Forty- 
four  such  schools  have  been  organized  up  to  March,  1921,  with 
an  attendance  of  24,827,  slightly  more  than  half  being  boys. 
The  courses  given  are  both  academic  and  industrial,  the  latter 
being  most  largely  in  evidence.  In  the  main,  attendance  is 
good,  though  the  director  of  vocational  education  reports 
certain  difficulties  not  yet  adjusted.^®^ 


158.  Acts  and  Hesolves,  1919,  ch.  281. 

159.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1919,  ch.  311. 

160.  The  continuation  school  may  be  established  by  the  school  committee 
or  by  the  local  board  of  trustees  for  vocational  education  or  by  both. 
Advantage  may  be  taken  of  established  educational  agencies,  and  any  suit- 
able quarters  approved  by  the  state  board  of  education  may  be  used,  but 
when  established  the  school  is  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  public  school 
system  of  the  municipality. 

161.  Data  by  Mr.  Robert  O.  Small,  Director  of  Vocational  Education. 


MASSACHUSETTS 


83 


Massachusetts  has  adhered  rigidly  to  her  historic  method  of 
local  responsibility  in  enforcing  general  school  attendance. 
Nowhere  else  have  the  weaknesses  of  strictly  local  methods 
been  more  clearly  pointed  out,  but  while  the  state  has  accepted 
almost  complete  responsibility  for  the  enforcement  of  child 
labor  laws,  it  has  not  been  favorable  to  taking  over  any  share 
in  the  task  of  securing  attendance  upon  the  schools.  While 
she  still  ranks  high  in  the  proportion  of  her  school  population 
in  attendance  upon  means  of  education,  her  advance  over  a 
series  of  years  has  not  been  notable,  all  the  other  states  in- 
cluded in  this  study  having  made  greater  progress  in  this 
respect.^"^  Since  the  state  must  depend  entirely  upon  reports 
from  the  many  local  authorities  as  to  school  attendance  and 
the  degree  in  which  attendance  laws  are  enforced,  the  statistics 
in  this  field  are  far  from  satisfactory.  From  a  study  of  the 
materials  available  it  is  evident  that,  in  general,  the  com- 
pulsory attendance  requirements  have  been  laxly  adminis- 
tered.^*^ As  something  of  a  check,  data  bearing  upon  attend- 
ance were  secured  through  the  cooperation  of  the  superin- 
tendents of  schools  in  three  fairly  representative  cities  of  the 
state  with  population  varying  from  fifteen  thousand  to  one 
hundred  fifty  thousand.^***  The  following  table  exhibits  the 
conditions  prevailing  in  these  communities. 

TABLE  I 

Showing  attendance  in  three  Massachusetts  districts 

First  six  months,  1920-1921 


1 

« 
e  > 

m 

i 

111 

o 

l| 

11 

»°2 
111 

1 
K 

in 

III 

1^ 

Fall  River 

17247 

7 

Complete 

92 

4500 

2378 

2500 

0 

Framingham 

2200 

1 

tf 

91.7 

516 

204 

0 

0 

Worcester 

19934 

5 

ft 

89 

2247 

2247 

1700 

30 

162.  See  diagram,  p.- 

163.  Supra,  pp.  69,  70,  76. 

164.  The  writer  is  indebted  to  Mr.  Ernest  W.  Fellows,  Mr.  H.  L.  Belisle, 
and  Mr.  Harvey  S.  Gruver,  superintendents  at  Framingham,  Fall  Kiver,  and 
Worcester,  respectively,  for  their  assistance  in  this  instance. 


84   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

It  would  appear  that  in  these  three  districts  a  satisfactory 
degree  of  attendance  is  secured,  with  every  child  accounted  for. 
In  Fall  River  the  number  reported  in  continuation  school  is 
greater  than  the  total  number  of  working  papers  issued,  but 
it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  child  must  attend  school  not 
in  the  district  in  which  he  resides  and  where  he  secures  his 
working  papers  but  in  the  district  in  which  he  is  employed. 
It  is  significant  that  in  the  district  in  which  is  found  the  low- 
est percentage  of  attendance  there  have  been  several  prosecu- 
tions during  the  year,  while  in  Pall  River,  a  city  formerly 
known  as  a  sad  offender  in  regard  to  both  child  labor  and 
attendance  laws,  the  rate  of  attendance  is  highest  and  no  parent 
has  been  proceeded  against  for  violation  of  the  schooling 
requirements.^®'' 

Under  the  authority  of  the  State  Board  of  Labor  and  In- 
dustry the  child  labor  laws  are  administered  with  a  fair  degree 
of  efficiency.  Thirty-three  inspectors  are  constantly  busy  in 
the  discharge  of  their  duties,  one  of  which  is  to  see  that  no 
children  are  illegally  employed.^®®  Yet  there  is  evidence  that 
far  too  many  children  succeed  in  entering  employment  con- 
trary to  law  and  in  holding  their  places  in  defiance  of  the 
vigilance  of  the  inspectors  and  the  attendance  officers.^®^ 
Offending  employers  are  no  longer  treated  with  the  tender 
leniency  formerly  extended  to  them,  yet  penalties  are  not 
heavy  and  rigid  compliance  with  the  law  is  sometimes 
inconvenient.^®® 


165.  During  the  school  year  1919-1920,  one  parent  and  two  hundred  sixty- 
six  employers  were  prosecuted  in  this  city  for  violation  of  the  child  labor 
laws. 

166.  The  statutes  now  provide  for  thirty-nine  inspectors. 

167.  A  study  of  a  thousand  accidents  to  children  between  fourteen  and 
sixteen  employed  in  Massachusetts  reveals  that  over  two  hundred,  more 
than  twenty  per  cent,  were  employed  contrary  to  law,  either  without  proper 
working  papers  or  in  some  forbidden  occupation.  The  American  Child, 
November,  1920,  pp.  222-229. 

168.  In  recent  years,  between  200  and  300  cases  have  been  brought  annually 
against  employers  who  have  violated  some  part  of  the  child  labor  laws. 
There  have  been  relatively  few  acquittals.  In  the  year  1917,  thirty-three 
per  cent  of  all  cases  instituted  by  the  inspectors  were  for  the  illegal  em- 
ployment of  children;  in  1918,  sixty-eight  per  cent,  and  in  1919,  fifty-seven 
per  cent  of  all  cases  were  on  account  of  children.  See  Fifth,  Sixth,  and 
Seventh  Annual  Eeports,  State  Board  of  Labor  and  Industries,  pp.  20,  14, 
and  9,  respectively. 


MASSACHUSETTS  S5 

There  is  no.  organic  connection  between  the  labor  inspectors 
and  the  school  authorities,  intimately  as  their  duties  are  re- 
lated, except  that  all  working  papers  are  issued  by  the  latter. 
To  the  layman  it  seems  probable  that  with  an  adequate  state- 
wide system  of  child  accounting,  and  with  reasonable  co- 
operation between  attendance  officers  and  inspectors,  every 
child  might  be  followed  up  and  his  illegal  employment 
prevented.^^® 

In  certain  respects  other  states  have  passed  beyond  Massa- 
chusetts in  the  protection  of  children,  yet  almost  every  advance 
in  the  progressive  development  of  child  labor  laws  and  com- 
pulsory measures  for  the  education  of  the  masses  in  America 
may  be  traced  to  this  commonwealth,  or  to  people  whose  ideals 
were  shaped  within  her  borders.  In  the  Colonial  period  there 
was  only  a  partial  appreciation  of  the  rights  of  childhood,  yet 
even  then  there  was  a  zeal  for  education  not  equalled  else- 
where in  the  world.  Under  the  heavy  handicaps  of  the  **dark 
days  of  New  England,'*  and  those  days  of  industrial  darkness 
in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  progress  has  seemed 
slow.  Sometimes  there  was  apparent  retrogression.  In  recent 
decades  there  has  been  constant  warfare  with  totally  unscru-. 
pulous  manufacturers  and  with  parents  quite  willing  to  mort- 
gage the  future  of  their  children  for  their  present  meagre 
earnings.  There  has  been  the  insidious  menace  of  the  kind- 
hearted,  philanthropic,  but  misguided  employer  holding  to  the 
earlier  theories  regarding  the  moral  value  of  child  labor  and 
firmly  convinced  that  for  the  mill  child  no  education  beyond 
mastery  of  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic  is  desirable.  There 
have  been  enthusiastic  but  poorly  balanced  social  workers 
who,  by  ill-considered  measures,  have  antagonized  elements 
whose  cooperation  in  successful  law  enforcement  is  necessary. 


1C9.  The  inspectors  find  many  children  to  whom  proper  working  papers 
have  been  issued  engaged  in  labor,  not  suited  to  their  strength  or  state  of 
health.  Often  the  employer  changes  the  assignment  of  work  after  the  child 
enters  upon  the  task  originally  approved.  In  other  instances  an  inadequate 
medical  examination  has  failed  to  reveal  some  disability  or  weakness  which 
may  later  cause  serious  accident  either  to  the  child  or  a  fellow  worker.  A 
study  recently  made  of  the  medical  examinations  of  applicants  for  working 
papers  in  the  years  1917,  1918,  and  1919  shows  that  in  many  cases  not  more 
than  two  minutes  were  given  a  child,  sometimes  only  one  minute  or  even 
less.  Seventh  Annual  Beport,  State  Board  of  Labor  and  Industries,  pp. 
26-33. 


86   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Notwithstanding  these  and  other  obstructive  elements  a 
record  has  been  made  for  which  no  apologies  need  be  offered. 
The  principles  of  American  government,  firmly  grounded  in 
English  tradition,  have  been  developed.  Gradually  the  will  of 
a  people  has  expressed  itself  in  a  degree  of  state  control,  of 
compulsory  procedure  which,  suddenly  proposed,  would  have 
appeared  intolerable.  Always  the  method  of  progress  has  been 
the  same;  the  practice  of  a  more  adequate  and  enlightened 
method  by  a  few  communities;  a  gradual  extension  of  such 
method  to  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  state;  permissive  legis- 
lation; general  legislation;  usually  without  adequate  means  of 
enforcement;  finally  strict  enforcement  with  exaction  of  pen- 
alty for  non-compliance  with  the  letter  of  the  law. 


CHAPTER  V 
CONNECTICUT 

Connecticut  has  in  some  respects  passed  beyond  all  other 
states  in  the  effective  enforcement  of  her  compulsory  attend- 
ance and  child  labor  laws.  Her  large  local  initiative  with  the 
historic  town  as  the  unit  of  control  is  united  with  a  state 
authority  nowhere  else  so  intimately  in  touch  with  the  people. 
The  child  labor  law  of  this  state  is  by  no  means  a  model,  nor 
does  the  law  requiring  a  minimum  of  school  attendance  repre- 
sent the  highest  attainment  in  this  form  of  legislation,  yet  in 
the  method  and  efficiency  of  enforcement  other  states  may  well 
learn  of  Connecticut.  Not  the  law,  but  its  administration  is 
the  contribution  of  this  state. 

Conditions  of  compulsory  education  and  child  labor  in  the 
Colonial  and  early  National  periods,  already  noted,  were  not 
essentially  different  from  those  prevailing  in  Massachusetts. 
It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  organized  labor  was  an  im- 
portant factor  in  support  of  legislation  intended  primarily  to 
benefit  the  children  of  working  men.^  The  law  of  1813^  had 
apparently  affected  the  educational  status  of  factory  children 
very  little.  Henry  Barnard  found  it  a  **dead  letter"  in  1840,^ 
and  urged  more  adequate  legislation  in  behalf  of  the  youthful 
workers  of  the  state  who  were  growing  up  in  ignorance."*  After 
repeated  recommendations  by  Mr.  Barnard,  Secretary  of  the 
Commissioners  of  Common  Schools,  in  which  the  governor 
joined  in  milder  vein,^  a  law  was  enacted  in  1842,  distinctly  in 
advance  of  the  measure  of  1813,  yet  quite  as  incapable  of  en- 
forcement.    Its  chief  provisions  were: 


1.  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  U.  S.,  Senate  Doc,  No.  645,  1910 
Vol.  VI,  p.  92. 

2.  Supra,  p.  34. 

3.  Sec.  An.  Bpt.  Com.  of  Schs.  Ct.,  p.  24. 

4.  Ibid. 

5.  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners,  op.  cit.,  p.  91. 

87 


88   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

1.  No  child  under  fifteen  might  be  employed  in  any  manu- 
facturing establishment,  **or  in  any  other  business  in  this 
state,"  unless  he  had  attended  some  public  or  private  day 
school  for  at  least  three  months  of  the  preceding  twelve.        l 

2.  A  penalty  of  twenty-five  dollars  was  fixed  for  violation 
of  the  law  by  any  owner,  agent,  or  superintendent  of  a  manu- 
facturing establishment. 

3.  A  signed  statement  of  the  teacher,  duly  sworn  to  by  him, 
was  evidence  that  the  terms  of  the  law  had  been  met. 

4.  The  school  visitors^  were  required  to  examine  into  the 
condition  of  factory  children  annually,  or  more  frequently  if 
they  saw  fit,  and  were  to  report  all  violations  to  "some  in- 
forming officer  to  the  intent  that  prosecutions  may  be  instituted 
therefor.  * ' 

5.  No  child  under  fourteen  was  to  be  employed  more  than 
ten  hours  a  day  in  cotton  or  woolen  mills,  under  penalty  of 
seven  dollars  for  each  offense.^ 

Such  evidence  as  is  available  indicates  that,  like  the  law  of 
1813,  this  measure  received  scant  attention.  The  section  pro- 
hibiting the  employment  of  children  under  fourteen  for  a  day 
in  excess  of  ten  hours  did  not  even  propose  a  method  of  en- 
forcement. No  provision  was  made  for  penalizing  any  viola- 
tion of  the  law  except  in  the  manufacturing  industries,  while 
the  provisions  for  carrying  out  the  educational  features  of  the 
act  were  ludicrously  insufficient.  There  appears  here  a  crude 
form  of  employment  certificate  similar  to  that  of  Massachusetts 
at  the  time,  and  though  employers  were  not  required  to  de- 
mand such  papers,  their  possession  would  settle  any  disputed 
case.  They  furnished,  also,  a  basis  for  the  more  complete 
certificate  finally  evolved. 

The  educational  system  of  Connecticut  was  not  so  organized 
at  this  time  as  to  make  a  high  degree  of  state  control  possible. 
It  was  the  period  of  largest  local  authority  in  education,  the 
districts  being  legally  vested  with  full  control  over  the  schools 
within  their  respective  limits.®  The  idea  that  public  schools 
were  charity  schools,  so  prevalent  outside  of  New  England, 
had  affected  the  lofty  educational  conceptions  of  Colonial 
Connecticut.    The  local  school  societies  were  unwilling  to  tax 


6.  Local  school  officers,  comparable  to  school  committee  in  Massachusetts. 

7.  In  the  same  year  Massachusetts  restricted  the  hours  of  factory  children 
under  twelve  to  ten  in  one  day. 

8.  Steiner,  History  of  Ed.  in  Conn.,  p.  35. 


CONNECTICUT  89 

their  constituencies,  keeping  the  schools  open  each  year  only 
long  enough  to  spend  the  public  money  derived  from  perma- 
nent funds.^  In  1839  a  slight  degree  of  state  supervision  had 
been  attempted,  a  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Common  Schools 
created,^^  and  Henry  Barnard  called  to  its  secretaryship,  but 
the  same  legislature  that  enacted  the  labor-attendance  law  of 
1842  abolished  the  Commission,  thus  effectually  checking  such 
development  of  state  influence  as  might  eventually  have  arisen 
from  this  body. 

By  1844  there  was  sufficient  dissatisfaction  with  prevailing 
educational  conditions  to  warrant  a  legislative  investigation. 
A  committee,  appointed  by  the  governor  under  authority  of  a 
joint  resolution,  rendered  a  severe  indictment  of  the  existing 
system,  which  in  their  judgment  was  less  effective  than  in 
former  years.  Teachers,  the  committee  reported,  were  poorly 
prepared  and  poorly  paid  ;^^  equipment  was  inadequate ;  about 
the  school  buildings  there  were  lacking  the  ordinary  comforts 
and  decencies  of  life.^*  Compulsory  attendance  upon  such 
schools  could  not  be  considered.  The  committee  recommend- 
ed, however,  as  a  first  step  in  redeeming  the  situation,  the 
creation  of  a  state  head  of  the  schools.  This,  it  pointed  out, 
need  not  involve  the  creation  of  a  new  office,  the  thought  of 
the  committee  being  that  some  state  officer  already  provided 
for  might  be  vested  wdth  **  authority  to  act  in  certain  cases 
in  interpreting  and  enforcing  laws  relating  to  schools.*'  The 
committee  suggested  that 

**In  order  to  enable  the  secretary  of  state,  or  other  officer, 
to  discharge  this  additional  duty,  he  might  be  authorized  to 
employ  a  clerk  or  assistant,  at  a  moderate  salary,  and  he  might 
be  allowed  a  small  sum  for  printing,  postage,  etc.'*^^ 

Such  was  the  vision  of  a  state-administered  system  of  educa- 

9.  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  V,  p.  119. 

10.  Acts  of  18S8,  ch.  52.  Mr.  Barnard  as  secretary  of  the  Board  instituted 
a  progressive  program  but  when  his  work  ended  with  the  abolishment  of  the 
office  his  remedial  laws  were  repealed.    Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  I,  p.  719. 

11.  Men  received,  on  an  average,  $15.42  per  month;  women,  $6.86 — Bpt. 
Supt.  Com.  Sch.,  1846,  p.  8. 

12.  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  XIII,  pp.  728,  729. 

13.  Ibid.,  p.  730.  It  was  not  unusual  at  this  time  to  assign  the  duties  of 
state  superintendent  of  schools  to  some  official  whose  status  was  more 
definitely  established. 


90   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

tion  attained  by  a  representative  group  of  Connecticut 's  promi- 
nent citizens  in  1845.^* 

In  pursuance  of  the  recommendations  of  the  special  com- 
mittee, the  joint  legislative  committee  on  education  reported 
a  bill  which  was  passed  in  both  houses  by  large  majorities.^^ 
In  this  act  of  1845  two  items  bear  upon  this  study:  first,  the 
Commissioner  of  the  School  Fund  was  made  ex-officio  Superin- 
tendent of  Common  Schools;^®  secondly,  it  was  made  the  duty 
of  the  visitors  of  each  school  society  to  choose  each  year  one 
of  their  number  whose  particular  duty  it  should  be  to  visit 
every  common  school  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  society  at 
least  twice  during  the  school  session,  and  to  make  an  annual 
report  to  the  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools.  The  visitor 
received  the  sum  of  one  dollar  for  each  day  spent  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  professional  duties.  Such  authority  as  the  super- 
intendent enjoyed  came  largely  from  the  fact  that  he  was  also 
Commissioner  of  the  School  Fund,  and  under  the  law  had 
power  to  pass  upon  claims  for  funds  which  had  been  forfeited 
by  school  societies  through  non-conformance  with  the  letter 
of  the  law.  On  the  whole  the  legislation  of  1845  was  a  de- 
cided advance  towards  the  erection  of  a  central  authority 
strong  enough  to  supervise  and  direct  the  educational  forces 
of  the  state. 

The  Honorable  Seth  Beers,  Commissioner  of  the  School  Fund 
and  a  member  of  the  investigating  committee  of  1844-1845,  be- 
came the  first  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  and  from 
the  beginning  devoted  himself  to  a  policy  which  foreshadowed 
the  method  of  state  control  now  distinguishing  Connecticut  in 
her  school  administration.  He  urged  in  succeeding  reports  the 
establishment  of  a  central  State  Board  of  Education,  not  un- 
like that  inaugurated  in  Massachusetts  in  1838,  and  employing 
a  full-time  secretary.^^  In  1849  the  legislature  acting  upon 
another  recommendation  of  the  Superintendent,  established  a 
State  Normal  School.  The  principal  of  this  school  was  made 
ex-officio  superintendent  of  common  schools,  and  to  this  double 


14.  John  T.  Norton,  Seth  P.  Beers,  C.  W.  Rockwell,  Isaac  W.  Stuart,  John 
Johnston,  Samuel  Nichold,  William  T.  Russell,  Edward  Eldridge. 

15.  Barnard's  Journal,  op.  cit. 

16.  The  ofl&ce  of  Commissioner  of  the  School  Fund  was  created  in  1810. 

17.  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  272. 


CONNECTICUT  91 

duty  Henry  Barnard  was  called.^^  He  accepted  on  condition 
that  an  associate  principal  be  appointed  to  have  immediate 
charge  of  the  Normal  School,  leaving  him  free  to  devote  him- 
self to  the  common  schools.^^ 

Mr.  Beers  had  been  deeply  concerned  over  the  irregularity 
observed  in  school  attendance.  He  particularly  condemned 
parents  for  their  indifference,  saying,  **If  a  farmer  were  thus 
to  neglect  his  young  cattle,  he  would  be  stigmatized  as  hard 
hearted  and  improvident.  "^^  Mr.  Barnard  also  devoted  much 
attention  to  school  attendance,  estimating  that  at  least  12,000 
children  were  receiving  no  instruction  in  either  public  or 
private  schools.  Of  these,  many,  he  said,  were  employed  in 
factories  from  which  they  were  unable  to  withdraw  because 
of  family  necessities.  For  such,  Mr.  Barnard  recommended 
the  establishment  of  evening  schools.^^  Singularly  enough, 
though  he  deplored  the  inability  of  factory  children  to  leave 
their  work  long  enough  to  acquire  the  rudiments  of  an  educa- 
tion, he  did  not  commit  himself  to  a  general  policy  of  state 
interference  or  control.  He  does  not  even  mention  the  labor- 
attendance  law  of  1842,  designed  to  secure  for  the  working 
child  at  least  a  minimum  of  learning.  Indeed,  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  he  ever  became  deeply  interested  in  factory  children 
as  a  class,  perhaps  because  his  energies  were  devoted  so  com- 
pletely to  the  task  of  re-creating  a  general  interest  in  public 
education.  It  is  almost  certain  he  had  not  at  that  time  recog- 
nized the  evil  effects  of  child  labor  and  the  need  of  controlling 
it.  The  value  of  industry  had  not  escaped  him,  however.  In 
1850  he  A^Tote: 

**  After  the  age  of  ten  or  twelve,  a  portion  of  each  year  spent 
in  the  discharge  of  domestic  duties  at  home,  or  in  healthy  labor 
in  the  field,  the  mill,  the  counting-room,  or  the  workshop,  under 
the  direction  and  supervision  of  parents  or  natural  guardians, 
will  prove  of  more  service  to  the  physical  training  of  most 
children,  and  the  formation  of  good  practical  habits  of  thought. 


18.  Dr.  Barnard  was  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Common 
Schools  during  its  short  existence,  1839-1842. 

19.  Barnard 's  Journal,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  274. 

20.  Rpt.,  1848,  quoted  by  Barnard,  op  cit.,  p.  271. 

21.  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  295f.  Three-quarters  of  a  century 
later  the  attendance  upon  evening  schools  of  working  children  not  graduates 
of  the  elementary  grades  was  to  be  made  compulsory.    Seq.,  p.  104. 


92    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

feeling,  and  action,  than  if  spent  over  books  in  the  school- 
room. "^^ 

He  could  subscribe  whole-heartedly  to  that  part  of  the  Con- 
necticut Code  of  1650,  still  embodied  in  her  laws  relating  to 
children,  requiring: 

"That  all  parents  and  masters  shall  employ  and  bring  up 
their  children  and  apprentices  in  some  honest  and  lawful  call- 
injA",  labor,  or  employment  profitable  for  themselves  and  the 
State.'* 

The  real  responsibility  for  keeping  children  in  school,  Mr. 
Barnard  felt,  rested  upon  local  school  boards,  and  he  urged 
such  conditions  as  would  attract  and  hold  the  children,  with 
forfeiture  of  public  funds  in  case  of  serious  irregularity  in 
attendance.  Finally,  when  all  other  expedients  should  fail  he 
advocated  a  suffrage  restricted  by  an  educational  requirement.^^ 

Mr.  Barnard  was  a  fine  type  of  the  New  England  scholar. 
He  was  a  man  of  high  ideals  and  broad  social  sympathies.  One 
is  justified  in  seeking  to  ascertain  his  attitude  toward  child 
labor  and  compulsory  school  attendance,  for  it  probably  repre- 
sents the  most  generous  and  statesmanlike  views  of  the  period. 
It  is  clear  that  he  approved  of  large  local  responsibility  in 
education,  yet  he  recognized  that  only  through  some  com- 
pulsory state  direction  could  the"  masses  be  educated,  saying : 

"As  education  is  a  want  not  felt  by  those  who  need  it  most, 
for  themselves  or  their  children,  ...  as  it  is  a  right  which  is 
inherent  in  every  child,  but  which  the  child  cannot  enforce, 
and  as  it  is  an  interest,  both  public  and  individual,  which  can- 
not safely  be  neglected,  it  is  unwise  and  unjust  to  leave  it  to 
the  sense  of  parental  duty,  or  the  unequal  and  insufficient  re- 
sources of  which  individuals,  and  local  authorities,  under  the 
stimulus  of  ordinary  motives,  will  provide.  If  it  is  thus  left, 
there  will  be  the  educated  few  and  the  uneducated  many.  "2* 

During  the  superintendency  of  Dr.  Barnard  there  was  no 
significant  legislation  bearing  upon  the  labor  or  education  of 
children.  A  mild  agitation  on  the  question  of  shorter  working 
hours  was  continued.  Governor  Seymour  became  interested 
and  urged  legislative  action.    He  suggested  that  ten  hours  be 

22.  Ct.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1851,  p.  11. 

23.  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  299-302. 

24.  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  XV,  p.  291. 


CONNECTICUT  93 

made  a  legal  day  for  adult  labor  and  eight  hours  for  children.^^ 
Evidently  there  was  considerable  opposition,  joint  committees 
of  the  two  houses  reporting  adversely.  In  1855,  however,  a 
law  was  passed,^^  providing  that  in  absence  of  contract,  ten 
hours  should  constitute  a  day's  labor  in  mechanical  and  manu- 
facturing establishments.  Children  under  nine  years  of  age 
might  not  be  employed  in  such  establishments  at  all,  and  minors 
under  eighteen  were  limited  to  eleven  hours  a  day.  The  next 
year  the  law  was  amended,^^  excluding  children  under  ten 
from  factories,  and  lengthening  the  working  day  for  minors 
to  twelve  hours,  with  a  maximum  of  sixty-nine  hours  in  a  week. 
The  penalty  for  violation  was  fixed  at  twenty  dollars  for  each 
offense;  enforcement  was  left  to  constables  and  grand  jurors. 

This  law,  like  that  of  1842,  gave  little  promise  of  enforce- 
ment. Nothing  is  said  as  to  its  effect  in  the  educational  re- 
ports until  1860,  when  the  superintendent  complains  that  **the 
laws  relating  to  the  employment  of  children  in  factories  are 
not  enforced  in  some  parts  of  the  state. ''^^  He  lays  the  respon- 
sibility for  the  infraction  of  the  law  not  so  much  upon  the 
agents  and  superintendents  of  the  mills  employing  children  as 
upon  *^the  cupidity  and  necessity  of  the  parents  who  receive 
the  pittance  earned  by  the  child."  He  adds,  **The  subject  is 
becoming  one  of  importance  in  our  cities  and  manufacturing 
villages,  and  may  call  for  additional  legislation.  "^^ 

The  Civil  War  interrupted  the  educational  program  that  had 
been  shaping  itself  along  the  lines  indicated  by  Seth  Beers  and 
Henry  Barnard,  but  at  its  close  there  was  renewed  activity. 
In  1865  the  proposed  State  Board  of  Education  was  created, 
with  a  paid  secretary,  an  ex-offlcio  member  of  the  Board  and 
its  executive  officer.  It  is  this  central  organization  with  its 
large  powers,  acquired  almost  as  much  through  custom  as  law, 
that  .has  given  Connecticut  her  unique  place  among  the  states 
in  the  enforcement  of  laws  pertaining  to  children. 


25.  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  U.  S.,  Senate  Doc.  645,  1920,  Vol. 
VI,  pp.  92,  93. 

26.  Acts  of  1855,  ch.  45. 

27.  Acts  of  1856,  ch.  39. 

28.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1860,  pp.  10,  11. 

29.  Ibid. 


94    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

A  truant  law  was  enacted  in  the  same  year,^°  1865,  giving 
to  each  town  authority  to  make  all  necessary  arrangements 
for  the  custody  and  education  of  habitual  truants  and  idlers 
between  the  ages  of  seven  and  sixteen.^^  Any  truant  or  idler 
within  these  ages  was  subject  to  apprehension  and  fine  of 
twenty  dollars  or  less,  but  in  lieu  of  fine  the  court  might  com- 
mit the  child  to  some  suitable  institution  of  instruction  or 
reformation.  The  mayor  was  to  appoint  annually  three  or 
more  persons  who  were  vested  with  exclusive  power  to 
prosecute. 

Child  labor,  following  the  war,  was  apparently  increasing, 
although  no  reliable  data  had  been  collected.  The  first  secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Education,  Mr.  Daniel  C.  Oilman,  made 
some  inquiries  in  the  factory  districts,  finding  the  law  of  1842 
generally  neglected.  He,  like  Barnard,  did  not  blame  the 
manufacturers  for  the  violation  of  the  law  but  rather  the  needy 
or  avaricious  parents  who  forced  their  children  into  the  mills 
in  spite  of  occasional  protests  from  school  visitors  and  news- 
papers. ** Public  opinion,"  said  the  secretary,  **does  not  cry 
out  for  the  execution  of  the  law."^^ 

Secretary  Oilman  was  confident  that  he  could  secure  the 
ready  cooperation  of  the  larger  manufacturers  in  the  enforce- 
ment of  a  suitable  law  restricting  the  labor  of  young  children.^^ 
The  Board  of  Education  therefore  set  to  work  to  secure  legis- 
lation adapted  to  the  industrial  situation  in  the  state,  with 
the  result  that  in  1869  one  of  the  most  significant  educational 
laws  thus  far  placed  on  the  Connecticut  statute  books  was 
enacted.  In  many  respects  it  resembled  the  discredited  law 
of  1842,  but  a  single  section  probably  saved  it  from  the  use- 
lessness  of  that  measure.    Its  chief  provisions  follow : 

1.  No  child  under  fourteen  might  be  employed  in  mill, 
factory,  or  other  business  unless  he  had  attended  some  public 
or  private  school  for  at  least  three  months  of  the  preceding 
year. 

2.  The  penalty  upon  any  employer  for  violation  of  the  law 
was  a  fine  of  not  to  exceed  one  hundred  dollars. 

30.  Eev.  Stat,  of  Conn.,  1866,  ch.  4,  sec.  56. 

31.  In  1856  the  school  societies  were  abolished  and  their  functions  were 
transferred  once  more  to  the  towns. 

32.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1867,  p.  85. 

33.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1866,  p.  83. 


CONNECTICUT  95 

3.  As  in  the  law  of  1842,  the  sworn  statement  of  the  teacher 
held  by  the  employer  was  sufficient  evidence  that  the  terms  of 
the  law  had  been  met. 

4.  It  was  made  the  duty  of  the  state  attorneys  instead  of 
the  town  constables  and  grand  jurors,  to  enforce  the  law. 

5.  The  significant  part  of  the  measure  appears  in  section 
three,  which  is:  **The  State  Board  of  Education  may  take 
such  action  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  to  secure  the  enforce- 
ment of  this  act.  and  may  appoint  some  one  of  its  members, 
or  some  other  suitable  person,  an  a^ent  for  that  purpose.  Such 
agent  shall  at  all  times  be  subject  to  the  direction  and  control 
of  said  Board,  and  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  from  the  State 
Treasury  for  any  service  rendered  under  the  provisions  of  this 
act,  the  sum  of  five  dollars  per  day  for  the  time  actually  em- 
ployed, and  necessary  expenses.''^* 

The  Board  of  Education  lost  no  time  in  putting  the  new 
machinery  of  enforcement  in  motion.  On  July  21,  1869,  Mr. 
Henry  M.  Cleveland  was  duly  appointed  agent  and  given  the 
duty  of  interpreting  the  law  and  organizing  his  work.^^  Mr. 
Cleveland  proved  a  tactful  and  efficient  agent.  He  decided  to 
gain  the  cooperation  of  the  manufacturers  in  carrying  out  the 
spirit  of  the  law  rather  than  to  resort  to  force  in  order  to 
secure  its  immediate  operation.  He  visited  the  mills  and 
factories,  advising  that  the  children  employed  be  divided  into 
three  groups,  each  group  to  attend  school  for  the  required 
three  months,  but  only  one  group  withdrawing  from  employ- 
ment during  a  given  period.  In  this  way,  once  adjustment 
had  been  made,  the  manufacturers  could  continue  without 
bringing  in  new  help.  After  presenting  his  plan  to  the  manu- 
facturers Mr.  Cleveland  induced  them  to  sign  the  following 
agreement : 

'*We  hereby  agree  that  from  and  after  the  beginning  of  the 
next  term  of  our  public  school  (or  schools)  we  will  employ  no 
children  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  except  those  who  are 
provided  with  a  certificate  from  the  local  school  officers  of 
actual  attendance  at  school  the  full  term  required  by  law."^* 

34.  A  somewhat  similar  method  of  enforcement  had  been  attempted  in 
Massachusetts  in  1867,  but  had  failed.  Section  three,  authorizing  the  Board 
to  employ  an  agent  to  enforce  the  law,  has  remained  practically  unchanged 
to  this  day.  Even  the  agent's  remuneration  has  continued  at  precisely  the 
same  figure,  five  dollars  per  day  and  necessary  expenses,  through  all  the 
changing  industrial  conditions  of  the  years  1869  to  1919. 

35.  Conn,  Sch.  Upt.,  1870,  p.  17. 

36.  Ihid.,  p.  19. 


96    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Mr.  Cleveland  found  the  manufacturers  very  ready  to  co- 
operate, only  one,  'Hhe  firm  of  Brown  Brothers,  of  Water- 
bury,  '  *  refusing  to  sign  the  agreement.^^  Some  were  prepared 
to  give  financial  support  to  the  movement  to  secure  the  educa- 
tion of  the  mill  children.  Cheney  Brothers,  silk  manufacturers 
at  Manchester,  built  a  fine  school-house  at  a  cost  of  twelve 
thousand  dollars,  and  provided  three  teachers  at  a  combined 
annual  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars.  Governor  Sprague  and 
others  also  provided  buildings.^^ 

While  the  chief  concern  of  those  supporting  the  law  of  1869 
was  the  education  of  factory  children,  the  measure  applied  to 
all  employers  of  children  alike,  merchants,  mechanics,  farmers, 
as  well  as  mill  owners  and  manufacturers.  The  Secretary  said 
of  it: 

*'It  recognizes  the  claims  of  the  humblest  child  to  that  educa- 
tion which  is  essential  to  meet  the  duties  and  responsibilities 
of  life,  a  claim  which  the  state  cannot  neglect  without  detri- 
ment to  itself  as  well  as  harm  to  a  human  soul."^^ 

But  an  unexpected  difficulty  was  encountered  in  enforcing 
the  employment-schooling  law.  Mr.  Cleveland  had  not  reckoned 
with  the  indifference  or  positive  hostility  of  parents  and 
children  to  educational  matters.  It  was  supposed  that,  the 
cooperation  of  the  factory  authorities  once  secured,  the  Avork- 
ing  children  under  fourteen  would  automatically  spend  three 
months  of  each  year  in  school.  But  the  agent  found  that  many 
children  sent  from  the  mill  had  not  entered  school  at  all.'**'  In 
other  places  the  schools  could  not  accommodate  the  pupils.*^ 
In  an  attempt  to  force  parents  to  keep  their  children  in  school 
for  the  minimum  time  a  law  was  passed  in  1871  which  re- 
quired that  every  parent  or  guardian,  whose  child  had  been 
discharged  temporarily  for  the  purpose  of  attending  school, 
send  such  child  to  school  for  the  legal  period,  subject  to  a  fine 
of  five  dollars  for  each  week  of  neglect.  The  local  board  of 
school  visitors  was  empowered  to  excuse  attendance  in  case 
of    mental    or    physical    disability,    or    if    found    ''that    the 


37.  Ibid.,  p.  20. 

38.  Ibid.,  p.  21. 

39.  Ibid.,  p.  33. 

40.  Conn.  Sch.  Ept.,  1871,  pp.  11,  12. 

41.  Ibid.,  1873,  p.  20. 


CONNECTICUT  97 

pecuniary  necessities  of  the  parents  of  such  child  require  his 
or  her  continued  absence  from  school."*^ 

Little  attempt  ^vas  made  to  enforce  the  law  applying  to 
parents.  It  is  doubtful  if  many  of  those  most  concerned  with 
the  welfare  of  factory  children  were  favorable  to  the  principle 
of  compulsion  at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  this  act.  The. 
truant  law  of  1865  was  enforced  in  a  few  of  the  cities  with 
satisfactory  results  and  the  measure  of  1869  was  not  openly 
opposed  by  manufacturers,  thanks  to  Cleveland's  tactful  ad- 
ministration. ''But,"  said  the  secretary  of  the  Board,  ''the 
legal  right  of  any  parent  or  guardian  to  keep  his  child  out  of 
school  whenever  and  for  Avhatever  causes  he  thinks  best,  will 
be  strenuously  maintained,  even  if  great  harm  results  to  the 
child  and  the  community.  Any  attempt  to  remedy  the  evil  by 
further  legislation  will  probably  do  more  harm  than  good.*'" 

At  this  time  the  educational  leaders  in  the  state  began  to 
advocate  a  general  compulsory  attendance  law.  Such  a 
measure,  following  the  order  of  development  in  Massachusetts, 
would  be  the  logical  outgrowth  of  the  laws  of  1842,  1865,  and 
1869 ;  moreover,  a  national  movement  towards  universal  educa- 
tion was  now  expressing  itself  in  the  laws  of  representative 
states  throughout  the  country.**  Apparently  there  was  no 
popular  demand  for  such  legislation  in  Connecticut,  even  the 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  regarding  it  as  of  doubt- 
ful value.*^  A  careful  examination  of  compulsory  school  at- 
tendance, as  enforced  in  European  countries,  convinced  the 
Secretary,  Dr.  B.  G.  Northrop,  that  such  laws  were  not  un- 
democratic, as  so  commonly  argued  in  this  country,  but  were 
truly  "the  legal  expression  of  the  public  will."  He  became, 
then,  after  his  visit  abroad,  a  strong  advocate  of  a  compulsory 
law  in  Connecticut,  and  in  1872  such  a  measure  was  enacted.*^ 

The  compulsory  attendance  law  of  1872,  after  restating  the 
ancient   requirement   that   those   having   charge   of   children 


42.  Hid.,  1872,  p.  268 ;  Conn.  Statutes,  Act  of  July  5, 1871,  ch.  52.  Exeusal 
because  of  poverty  has  remained  a  characteristic  of  the  Connecticut  attend- 
ance laws  ever  since  this  date. 

43.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1872,  p.  17. 

44.  Massachusetts,  1852;  Michigan,  1871;  Kansas,  1874. 

45.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1872,  p.  29. 

46.  Acts,  1872,  ch.  77. 


98    SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

should  ** bring  them  up  in  some  honest  and  lawful  calling  or 
employment/'  and  cause  them  to  be  instructed  in  the  common 
branches  of  learning,  provided  that  all  between  the  ages  of 
eight  and  fourteen  years  should  attend  some  public  or  private 
school  for  at  least  three  months  each  year,  unless  instructed  at 
home  or  prevented  from  attendance  by  mental  or  physical  dis- 
ability. The  law  carried  employment  restrictions  in  harmony 
with  the  child  labor  act  of  1869,  wdth  the  same  penalty,  a  fine 
of  not  more  than  one  hundred  dollars,  for  violation.  Parents 
or  guardians  permitting  the  violation  of  the  attendance  pro- 
visions were  subject  to  a  fine  of  five  dollars  for  each  week  of 
non-attendance,  except  that  in  no  case  was  the  penalty  to  be 
continued  beyond  thirteen  weeks  in  one  year. 

In  December,  1871,  the  Board  of  Education  had  accepted  the 
resignation  of  its  state  agent.  He  had  gained  the  good  will  of 
the  manufacturers  in  his  liberal  administration  of  the  child 
labor  law,  but  had  been  able  to  accomplish  little  with  parents 
and  local  school  authorities.  The  particular  work  that  Mr. 
Cleveland  had  undertaken  had  been  completed,  however,  and 
for  a  year  the  Board  had  no  representative  in  the  field.*^  After 
the  passage  of  the  compulsory  attendance  law  of  1872  the 
Board  decided  to  resume  the  field  work  and  in  November  of 
that  year  engaged  the  Honorable  Giles  Potter  as  its  agent.*® 

Mr.  Potter,  on  taking  up  his  duties  in  the  fall  of  1872  found 
little  inclination  on  the  part  of  parents  and  local  school  author- 
ities to  cooperate  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  but  manu- 
facturers, as  a  rule,  were  ready  to  meet  its  requirements.  The 
certificate  of  schooling  had  not  come  into  general  use,  chiefly 
because  it  had  not  been  demanded  by  employers.*^  Mr.  Potter 
sought  to  establish  a  system  whereby  each  child  under  four- 
teen years,  on  completing  a  term  of  school,  would  receive  a 


47.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1872,  p.  15. 

48.  Mr.  Potter  was  closely  in  touch  with  educational  conditions  in  Connecti- 
cut, having  had  long  experience  as  a  teacher  and  school  supervisor.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  legislature  in  1872,  and  had  been  active  in  securing  the 
passage  of  the  compulsory  attendance  law.  He  served  as  state  agent  con- 
tinuously until  1912,  when  he  was  retired  on  a  pension,  the  only  pension,  it 
is  said,  ever  granted  a  state  official  of  Connecticut.  He  died  in  1920,  aged 
ninety-one.  Doubtless  he  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  establish  the 
effective  system  of  enforcing  the  attendance  and  labor  laws  of  the  state. 

49.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1872,  p.  23. 


CONNECTICUT  99 

certificate  of  attendance  which,  in  case  he  wished  to  go  to 
work,  might  be  presented  to  the  employer.  In  support  of  this 
proposal,  he  said: 

**Let  it  be  understood  that  every  child  who  has  attended  a 
Connecticut  public  school  has  a  little  diploma  for  every  term, 
and  no  employer  can  have  an  excuse  for  not  knowing  when 
a  child  last  attended  school.'*^® 

An  attempt  was  made  to  carry  out  this  crude  plan  of  pro- 
viding each  public  school  child  with  a  legal  certificate  of  at- 
tendance, but  school  authorities  frequently  neglected  to  per- 
form their  part,  the  way  was  opened  for  counterfeiting  and 
deceit,  and  after  a  year  or  two  the  scheme  was  dropped.^^ 

During  the  early  years  of  his  service  Potter  employed  per- 
suasion rather  than  force  in  securing  obedience  to  the  law.  Up 
to  1878  he  had  advised  prosecution  in  but  two  cases,  both  of 
which  were  settled  out  of  court.'^^  There  were  abundant  op- 
portunities for  prosecution,  as  children  of  seven  or  eight  were 
frequently  employed  in  the  mills.*^'  But  this  form  of  violation 
was  evidently  so  common  that  it  was  not  regarded  seriously. 
There  was  a  tendency  in  the  better  establishments  not  to  accept 
very  young  children,  the  labor  of  those  under  ten  or  twelve 
not  being  deemed  profitable.'*  Yet  so  slightly  had  the  rights 
of  children  impressed  the  people  of  this  thrifty  state  that  when 
the  labor  law  was  revised  in  1875,  the  provision  of  1856,  that 
children  under  ten  should  not  be  employed  in  manufacturing 
establishments  was  omitted,  leaving  no  age  restriction  what- 
ever.^'' Of  this  Mr.  Potter  said,  in  1881,  **I  am  not  prepared 
to  say  that  it  should  be  reenacted.  It  is  better  to  enforce  the 
observance  of  a  few  laws  than  to  increase  the  number.  *''* 

For  a  decade  after  its  enactment  the  compulsory  attendance 
law  was  little  more  than  the  expression  of  a  public  wish. 
School  conditions  had  not  improved  in  some  sections  of  the 


50.  Ibid.,  1873,  p.  3. 

51.  Ibid.,  1875,  p.  44.    No  satisfactory  form  of  working  papers  was  adopted 
in  Connecticut  until  1911 ;  seq.,  p.  107. 

52.  Ibid.,  1778,  p.  24. 

53.  Ibid.,  1874,  p.  17. 

54.  Ibid.,   1875,  p.  47. 

55.  Ibid.,  1881,  p.  22. 

56.  Ibid. 


100      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

state  since  the  days  of  Henry  Barnard.  The  central  author- 
ities had  no  power  to  compel  local  committees  to  make  suitable 
provisions  for  their  children.  **  There  are  school-houses  in  the 
state,"  reported  the  agent  of  the  board,  *'to  which  no  humane 
school  officer  can  invite,  much  less  compel,  parents  to  send 
their  children.  "^^  The  board  patiently  carried  forward  a  pro- 
gram of  education  among  the  people,  as  among  manufacturers, 
keeping  the  penalties  of  the  law  in  the  background,^^  resorting 
to  the  courts  only  in  extreme  cases.^®  In  the  end,  compliance 
with  the  law  became  general.  Those  who  refused  to  meet  its 
requirements  were  more  frequently  brought  before  the  court 
and  fined;  in  1882  one  father  who  was  particularly  obdurate 
was  permitted  to  serve  a  three  weeks*  term  in  jail.^^ 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  the  attempt  to  develop  respect 
for  the  law  in  Connecticut  the  cooperation  of  the  courts  was 
more  cordial  than  in  Massachusetts  or  New  York.  Prior  to 
3882  the  justice  and  police  courts  did  not  have  final  jurisdic- 
tion over  cases  arising  out  of  the  child  labor  law,  and  in  case 
of  prosecution  there  was  frequently  an  appeal  to  a  higher 
court.  At  this  time  the  penalty  for  violation,  one  hundred 
dollars,  was  considered  excessive,  and  the  courts,  as  well  as 
the  state's  attorneys  apparently  sympathized  with  the  em- 
ployer, who  was  often  able  to  effect  a  settlement  by  partial 
payment  of  the  costs.  In  1882  the  jurisdiction  of  the  lower 
courts  was  extended  and  the  fine  made  not  to  exceed  sixty 
dollars.  After  that  date  prosecutions  were  almost  uniformly 
successful  in  the  first  instance.^^ 

In  the  decade  1880  to  1890,  there  was  a  distinct  tendency 
not  only  to  enforce  the  laws  affecting  the  employment  and 
education  of  children  more  strictly,  but  to  enact  more  stringent 
measures.  In  1885  the  period  of  compulsory  attendance  at 
school  was  extended  to  include  the  years  eight  to  sixteen,  but 
it  was  provided  that  children  over  fourteen  need  not  attend 
if  ''properly  employed  to  labor  at  home  or  elsewhere,"  and 

57.  Ibid.,  1873,  p.  23. 

58.  Ihid.,  1879,  p.  24. 

59.  Ibid.,  1880,  p.  20. 

60.  Ibid.,  1883,  p.  26. 

61.  Ibid.,  1886,  p.  47. 


CONNECTICUT  /%  :' -. :  '      101 

that  those  under  fourteen  were  not  subject  to  the  act  if  they 
had  attended  twelve  weeks  of  the  preceding  twelve  months 
and  were  regularly  employed.  This  left  the  employment  of 
very  young  children  entirely  unregulated,  subject  only  to  the 
sixty  days  of  school  attendance.  Secretary  Hines  recommend- 
ed the  reenactment  of  the  law  of  1856,  excluding  from  fac- 
tories all  children  under  ten  years  of  age.    He  said  in  part : 

''The  number  of  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  ten 
now  employed  is  not  so  large  that  their  exclusion  from  fac- 
tories would  derange  any  industry,  nor  could  the  education  of 
the  school  for  those  years  and  the  intermission  of  labor  materi- 
ally interfere  with  the  acquirement  of  ultimate  skill  in  any- 
trade  or  calling.  "®2 

This  last  observation  was  in  reply  to  the  argument  that  a 
child  must  enter  early  upon  his  labors  in  order  to  acquire  skill 
in  the  chosen  industry,  an  argument  advanced  regardless  of 
the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  children  were  given  in  the 
textile  mills  only  ''blind  alley*'  occupations. 

In  1886  the  legislature  went  decidedly  further  than  the 
secretary  had  recommended,  laying  upon  the  employment  of 
children  the  following  restrictions:®^ 

1.  No  child  under  thirteen  could  be  employed  in  any  me- 
chanical, mercantile,  or  manufacturing  establishment. 

2.  Any  violation  was  punishable  by  a  fine  of  not  more  than 
sixty  dollars. 

3.  An  employer  could  not  be  held  guilty  if  he  had  on  file 
a  certificate  from  the  town  clerk  or  from  any  teacher  of  a 
school  attended  by  the  child,  or  from  the  parent  or  guardian, 
to  the  effect  that  the  child  was  thirteen  years  of  age. 

4.  The  penalty  for  false  statement  by  parent  or  guardian 
was  a  fine  of  not  more  than  sixty  dollars. 

5.  Enforcement  was  laid  upon  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, local  school  visitors  and  town  committees. 

6.  The  Board  of  Education  was  authorized  to  employ  agents 
to  assist  in  enforcement. 

Secretary  Hines®*  was  frankly  skeptical  as  to  the  wisdom  of 
this  measure,  so  far  in  advance  of  previous  requirements.  He 
had  believed  the  state  to  be  ready  to  exclude  from  factories 


62.  Conn.  Sch.  Ept.,  1886,  p.  35. 

63.  Acts,  1886,  ch.  124. 

64.  Charles  D.  Hines  was  called  in  1884  to  the  secretaryship  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  a  place  which  he  still  occupies. 


102     •SGtf()d'L'-ATtfe^0ANeE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

children  under  ten,  but  this  law  advanced  three  years 
beyond  that  age.  The  law  he  thought  would  bear  heavily  upon 
parents  who  might  be  dependent  upon  the  earnings  of  their 
children;  the  children  themselves,  kept  so  long  from  learning 
to  work,  would  suffer.  He  feared,  also,  the  enforced  idleness 
of  the  long  vacations  and  the  effect  upon  those  who,  under 
former  conditions,  might  be  bribed  to  attend  school  for  three 
months  by  the  prospect  of  remunerative  employment  for  the 
rest  of  the  year.®'^ 

The  Board  prepared  to  enforce  the  law  vigorously,  appoint- 
ing six  additional  agents  to  assist  in  the  work.  Experience 
had  shown  that  very  little  aid  might  be  expected  from  local 
officials.  As  early  as  possible  an  attempt  was  made  to  ascer- 
tain the  manufacturers*  attitude  toward  the  measure.  Of 
thirty-nine  interrogated,  thirty-one  were  favorable,  the  follow- 
ing reasons  being  advanced  in  its  support  by  various 
employers : 

1.  Children  under  thirteen  years  of  age  ought  not  to  be 
employed,  but  should  be  in  school  regularly. 

2.  The  labor  of  children  under  thirteen  years  of  age  is  not 
profitable. 

3.  A  youth  is  more  likely  to  become  thoroughly  skillful  and 
useful  if  not  put  at  work  earlier  than  thirteen.^® 

The  eight  employers  opposed  to  the  law  advanced  practically 
the  same  reasons  as  those  suggested  by  Secretary  Hines.  The 
agents,  in  touch  with  the  actual  conditions  throughout  the 
state  reported  the  law  as  too  drastic,  and  suggested  as  a 
compromise  that  children  under  eleven  be  excluded  from 
the  restricted  employments,  while  those  under  fourteen  be 
employed  only  during  the  vacations  of  the  schools.  Fortun- 
ately their  suggestions  were  not  adopted  by  the  legislature. 
The  agents  did  not  permit  their  skepticism  as  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  law  to  interfere  with  their  efforts  to  enforce  it.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  earlier  regulations  parents  were  found  most 
difficult  to  deal  with,^^  though  opposition  also  came  from  vari- 
ous towns  whose  officials  feared  that  certain  families,  lacking 
the  income  formerly  derived  from  the  labor  of  their  children, 


65.  Conn.  Sch.  Spt.,  1887,  p.  56  ff. 

66.  Ihid.,  p.  117. 

67.  Ibid.,  pp.  117,  118. 


CONNECTICUT  103 

would  be  brought  upon  the  town  as  public  charges.^^  But  by 
a  judicious  use  of  the  support  which  the  agents  could  now 
command  from  the  state's  attorneys  and  the  courts,  the  children 
were  gradually  drawn  out  of  industry  until  in  1890  the  em- 
ployment of  those  under  thirteen  except  in  agriculture  had 
practically  ceased.®^  Further,  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Education  reported  that  there  was  no  evidence  that  the  pre- 
vention of  juvenile  labor  had  stopped  the  machinery  in  any 
industry,  raised  the  price  of  a  single  manufactured  article,  or 
caused  more  than  occasional  hardship  anywhere/" 

By  this  time  the  special  agents  who  had  been  appointed  to 
aid  in  enforcing  the  law  of  1886  had  been  withdrawn,  leaving 
Giles  Potter  with  a  single  assistant  to  carry  forward  the  work 
in  the  entire  state.  The  regular  routine  involved  the  follow- 
ing kinds  of  activities :^^  examination  of  enumeration  lists; 
examination  of  school  records ;  visitation  of  schools ;  visitation 
of  establishments  employing  children;  visitation  of  families. 
That  the  work  of  the  agents  had  assumed  extensive  proportions 
at  the  close  of  this  decade  is  sho^\Ti  in  the  summary  of  their 
activities  for  the  year  1888-1889,  as  follows  i^^ 

Towns  visited'^^  52 

Cases  investigated 1976 

Families  visited 1329 

Children  absent  from  school  with  legal  excuse  937 

Lack  of  clothing  112 

Due  to  mental  or  physical  disability 204 

At  work  legally 621 

Children  illegally  absent  598 

Absence  due  to  neglect ...533 

Illegally  at  work 65 

Children  sent  to  school  601 

Parents  prosecuted  32 

Employers  prosecuted  16 

68.  Conn.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  1886,  p.  xix. 

69.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1890,  p.  42. 

70.  Ibid. 

71.  Ibid.,  1889,  p.  39. 

72.  Ibid.,  1890,  p.  47. 

73.  Refers  to  the  Connecticut  town  or  township,  which  in  many  cases  might 
have  within  its  limits  several  villages  and  factory  towns  or  a  city. 


104   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Children  sent  to  reform  and  industrial  schools  16 

Children  sent  to  County  Home 14 

At  this  time  the  two  conspicuously  weak  points  in  the  Con- 
necticut labor  and  attendance  laws  were  the  inadequate  age 
and  schooling  certificate  and  the  short  period  of  compulsory 
attendance.  In  1892  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  undertook 
to  ascertain  by  means  of  a  questionary  whether  or  not  public 
opinion  would  support  a  still  further  advance  in  age  and 
schooling  requirements.  Inquiries  were  sent  to  manufactur- 
ers, teachers,  \^'orking  men,  and  physicians.  The  Bureau  con- 
cluded that  sentiment  favored  an  increase  in  the  minimum 
term  of  schooling,  if  at  the  same  time  the  age  of  employment 
was  advanced  to  fourteen  years.  Conclusions  were  based 
largely  on  the  opinions  of  manufacturers,  physicians,  and 
teachers,  as  very  few  working  men  replied  to  the  inquiry.''* 

The  Bureau  had  also  undertaken  to  ascertain  what  propor- 
tion of  the  children  entering  school  dropped  out  before  the 
completion  of  the  elementary  course.  Data  gathered  indicated 
that  a  very  large  number  left  the  school  without  finishing  the 
eighth  grade,  ''rising  in  some  schools,  particularly  those  in 
manufacturing  communities,  to  sixty,  seventy,  eighty,  ninety, 
and  even  one  hundred  per  cent."^^ 

In  1893  and  1895  the  compulsory  school  and  attendance  laws 
were  extended  and  strengthened.  In  1893  evening  schools, 
already  established  in  the  larger  centers,  were  made  com- 
pulsory in  all  towns  and  school  districts  of  10,000  and  up- 
ward,^® and  attendance  upon  them  was  required  of  all  factory 
employees  in  such  districts  between  fourteen  and  sixteen, 
and  unable  to  read  and  write.  In  1895  the  requirements  of  the 
attendance  and  labor  law  were  revised,  substituting  fourteen 
for  thirteen,  requiring  that  all  children  between  eight  and 
fourteen  attend  school  for  the  full  session,  continuing  until 
sixteen,  if  not  regularly  employed."     At  the  same  time  em- 


74.  Bpt.  Conn.  BureoM  of  Labor  Statistics,  1892-93,  pp.  192  ft, 

75.  Ibid.,  1894,  p.  276. 

76.  Acts,  1893,  ch.  227. 

77.  Acts,  1895,  ch.  134.  In  1919  it  was  provided  that  all  working  children 
between  fourteen  and  sixteen,  with  schooling  not  equivalent  to  that  re- 
quired for  the  completion  of  the  elementary  grades,  should  attend  evening 
schools,  where  established,  for  not  less  than  eight  hours  a  week  for  at  least 
sixteen  weeks  each  year.    Acts,  1919,  ch.  198. 


CONNECTICUT  105 

ployment  in  any  mechanical,  mercantile,  or  manufacturing 
establishment  under  the  age  of  fourteen  was  prohibited.  Since 
full  time  attendance  at  school  was  now  required  of  all  children 
up  to  the  minimum  age  for  legal  employment,  the  certificate 
of  attendance  was  no  longer  necessary,  but  the  age  certificate 
became  more  important  than  before.  The  old,  unsatisfactory 
form  was  continued,  a  statement  signed  by  the  town  clerk,  a 
teacher,  or,  if  the  signature  of  neither  could  be  procured,  by 
parent  or  guardian,  certifying  that  the  child  had  reached  the 
age  of  fourteen  years.  The  penalty  for  falsifying  a  certificate 
remained,  as  before,  a  fine  of  not  to  exceed  sixty  dollars, 

Connecticut  had  now  reached  as  high  a  standard  in  both  age 
and  schooling  requirements  as  had  been  attained  anywhere, 
leading  the  larger  number  of  states  in  both  respects.  It  re- 
mained for  her  to  improve  the  details  of  the  laws  and  their 
administration,  to  strengthen  favorable  public  sentiment  and 
to  further  improve  her  schools.  Very  decided  progress  had 
been  made  since  the  enactment  of  the  law  of  1886.  At  that 
time  even  the  optimistic  Secretary  of  the  Board  had  felt  certain 
that  the  friends  of  children  had  been  over-ambitious  and  hasty. 
The  field  agents  had  suggested  a  compromise  and  public  senti- 
ment had  declared  the  measure  too  drastic.  Now,  with  public 
sentiment  fairly  well  organized  and  back  of  the  compelling 
measures  these  new  regulations  were  accepted  without  protest. 
Indeed,  there  were  some  who  held  that  the  lower  limit  for 
employment  might  well  be  set  at  fifteen  instead  of  fourteen.^® 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  these  laws  were  now  self- 
enforcing.  Local  authorities  very  reluctantly  gave  their  sup- 
port to  the  state  agents.  It  was  often  difficult,  in  case  of  viola- 
tion persistent  enough  to  demand  prosecution,  to  induce  a 
grand  juror  to  sign  a  complaint  against  a  fellow-townsman.^^ 
Many  inconspicuous  lines  of  industry  were  offering  employ- 
ment to  children  who  had  been  effectively  excluded  from  the 
larger  mills  and  factories.®^  To  meet  this  last  situation  the 
law  was  further  amended  in  1899,  making  it  illegal  to  employ 

78.  Bpt.  Conn.  Bu.  of  Lab.  Stat.,  1895,  p.  15. 

79.  Conn.  Sch.  Ept.,  1897,  p.  40.  Purely  local  administration  of  attendance 
and  child  labor  laws  has  nowhere  proven  successful. 

80.  Ibid.,  1898,  p.  39. 


106   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

a  child  under  fourteen  years  of  age  in  any  kind  of  labor  dur- 
ing school  hours.^^ 

In  Connecticut,  as  in  other  states,  teachers  had  rendered 
little  systematic  service  in  enforcing  the  labor  and  attendance 
laws.  In  1898  each  teacher  outside  the  towns  employing 
superintendents  was  asked  to  report  attendance  every  month 
to  a  certain  agent,  with  such  additional  special  reports  as 
might  be  necessary.  It  was  hoped  that  through  this  closer 
relationship  to  the  state  a  feeling  of  responsibility  for  the  good 
name  of  school  and  community  might  extend  from  the  teacher 
to  pupil  and  parent.^^  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  system 
later  authorized  by  law,  which  has  done  much  to  secure  general 
cooperation  with  the  Educational  Department  throughout  the 
state. 

For  many  years  the  faulty  age  certificate  had  persisted,  the 
weakest  point  in  the  compulsory  laws.  Town  and  school 
records  were  poorly  kept  and  inadequate.  Town  clerks  and 
teachers  were  not  as  a  rule  deeply  concerned  in  securing 
authoritative  data,  and  doubtless  many  children  under  four- 
teen received  certificates  qualifying  them  for  factory  em- 
ployment. Besides,  a  child  born  outside  the  state  and  one 
who  for  any  reason  could  not  secure  a  certificate  of  age  from 
the  clerk  or  a  teacher  might  present  a  parentis  statement  of 
age.  These  were  notoriously  unreliable,  but  the  burden  of 
proof  fell  upon  the  state,  evidence  was  difficult  to  secure,  and 
many  children  clearly  under  legal  age  continued  to  enter  em- 
ployment in  defiance  of  the  frequent  visits  of  the  state  agents. 
In  1905  a  measure  was  enacted  which  put  a  powerful  weapon 
into  the  hands  of  local  school  committees  and  the  Board  of 
Education,  one  which  is  still  employed  to  good  effect.  This 
law  provides  that  whenever  a  town  school  committee,  the 
school  visitors,  or  the  Board  of  Education  determine  that  a 
child  over  fourteen  and  under  sixteen  has  not  had  suf- 
ficient schooling  to  satisfy  the  spirit  of  the  law,  they  may 
notify  the  parent  and  cause  such  child  to  attend  school  regu- 
larly.^2    The  law,  while  not  often  invoked,  enabled  the  agents 

81.  Acts,  1899,  ch.  19. 

82.  Conn.  Sch.  Ept.,  1899,  p.  47. 

83.  Acts,  1905,  ch.  36,  amending  ch.  20,  Acts  of  1903. 


CONNECTICUT  107 

to  counteract  in  part  the  flagrant  weakness  of  the  age  certifi- 
cate and  to  keep  in  school  children  who  otherwise  would  have 
escaped  even  exposure  to  the  means  of  education. 

In  1911  and  1913  the  final  legal  steps  were  taken  which 
brought  the  Connecticut  child  labor  law  to  the  form  in  which, 
with  unimportant  changes,  it  is  now  operating.  The  law  of 
1911  provided  for  a  more  adequate  certificate  of  age  and  educa- 
tion issued  only  under  the  authority  of  the  State  Board  of 
Ediication  under  conditions  to  be  described  presently.^*  In 
1913  those  who  had  advocated  vacation  certificates  won  their 
point  and  a  law  was  enacted  providing  that  any  child  in  good 
physical  condition  and  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of 
age  should,  on  personal  application  to  the  secretary  or  to  an 
agent  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  be  granted  a  temporary 
certificate  permitting  his  employment  during  the  summer 
vacation.^^ 

The  law  of  1911  provides  that  no  child  under  sixteen  years 
of  age  shall  be  employed  in  any  mechanical,  mercantile,  or 
manufacturing  establishment  unless  the  employer  has  first  ob- 
tained a  certificate  signed  by  the  secretary  or  an  agent  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education,  or  by  a  school  officer  designated  by 
that  board,  showing  that  the  child  is  over  fourteen  years  of 
age,  is  able  to  read  with  facility,  to  write  simple  sentences 
legibly,  to  perform  the  operations  of  the  fundamental  rules  of 
arithmetic  in  both  whole  numbers  and  fractions,  and  does  not 
appear  physically  unfit  for  employment.^^ 

These  laws,  together  Avith  the  compulsory  school  laws,  truant 
laws,  and  measures  relating  to  hours  of  labor  and  dangerous 
occupations  constitute  the  legal  measures  adopted  by  Connecti- 
cut for  the  protection  of  her  children.  In  certain  respects  they 
are  not  ideal,  failing  to  measure  up  to  the  legal  standards 
found  on  the  statute  books  of  many  other  states.  But  the 
centralization  in  the  hands  of  the  State  Board  of  Education 
of  nearly  all  phases  of  their  enforcement  and  administration 
has  led  to  the  development  of  a  system  of  unusual  efficiency. 
The  State  Board  has  interpreted  the  law  broadly,  including 

84.  Acts,  1911,  ch.  119. 

85.  Acts,  1913,  ch.  211. 

86.  Ads,  1911,  ch.  119. 


108      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

among  '* mechanical,  mercantile,  and  manufacturing"  activities 
practically  every  form  of  occupation;  requiring  employment 
certificates  of  all  child  laborers  except  newsboys  and  those  en- 
gaged in  agricultural  and  domestic  pursuits.^^  The  method 
of  administering  these  laws  is  set  out  in  some  detail  in  the 
following  pages.^® 

School  Attendance,  The  law  requires  that  every  child  be- 
tween the  ages  of  seven  and  sixteen  shall  attend  a  public  day 
school  for  the  entire  session  unless  **  receiving  regularly 
thorough  instruction  during  said  hours  and  terms  in  the  studies 
taught  in  the  public  schools."  Children  over  fourteen  years 
of  age  are  not  subject  to  this  requirement  if  **  lawfully  em- 
ployed at  labor  at  home  or  elsewhere,"  except  that  in  case  the 
school  visitors,  town  school  committee,  board  of  education  of 
any  town  or  district,  or  State  Board  of  Education  shall  decide 
that  a  child  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age  has  not 
had  sufficient  schooling  to  warrant  employment,  he  may  be  re- 
quired to  attend  school  until  the  desired  conditions  have  been 
met  or  until  he  reaches  his  sixteenth  birthday. 

The  machinery  for  enforcing  attendance  has  developed 
gradually  since  the  appointment  of  the  first  state  agent  in  1869. 
The  force  of  the  state  board  of  education  now  consists  of  eight 
agents,  two  of  whom  are  designated  as  attendance  officers,  de- 
voting the  major  portion  of  their  time  to  this  specific  work. 
All  the  agents  are  active  in  the  enforcement  of  all  phases  of 
the  law,  however,  and  to  that  end  all  are  really  attendance 
officers.  In  the  larger  cities  and  towms  local  attendance  officers 
are  employed,  who,  aided  by  the  teachers,  follow  up  all  children 
of  school  age  not  legally  employed  and  reported  out  of  school 
or  irregular  in  attendance.  Serious  cases  and  those  which 
cannot  be  located  are  reported  to  an  agent  of  the  State  Board, 
who  is  ready  to  cooperate  at  all  times.  In  districts  and  towns 
not  maintaining  attendance  officers,  teachers  or  other  school 


87.  U.  S.  Dpt.  of  Labor,  Children's  Bureau,  Pub.  No.  12,  1915,  Ad.  of  Ch. 
Lab.  Laws  in  Conn.,  p.  8. 

88.  Material  for  this  section  was  collected  largely  from/ printed  reports  and 
forms  of  the  Connecticut  State  Board  of  Education,  and  in  personal  con- 
ferences with  state  officials  and  local  officials  in  the  city  of  Hartford.  The 
writer  has  also  drawn  freely  upon  the  admirable  study  made  for  the  Federal 
Children's  Bureau  by  Miss  Helen  L.  Sumner  and  Miss  Ethel  E.  Hanks. 
Bureau  Publications,  No.  12,  1915. 


CONNECTICUT  109 

officers  report  each  month  to  the  agent  in  charge  of  their  dis- 
trict, listing  all  cases  of  non-attendance  or  irregularity.  More 
frequent  reports  are  made  if  occasion  demands.  All  these 
cases  are  followed  up  by  the  agent  and  the  children  are  usually 
returned  to  school  unless  they  have  left  the  state.  Parochial 
schools  are  not  required  by  law  or  by  the  ruling  of  the  State 
Board  to  report  absences  to  the  attendance  officers,  but  their 
registers  must  be  open  to  the  inspection  of  the  state  education- 
al authorities.®®  These  schools,  the  agents  say,  are,  as  a  rule, 
cooperating  with  the  compelling  officers,  thus  making  it  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  for  any  child  to  disappear  from  the  school 
system  either  as  a  truant  or  as  an  illegal  employee  in  factory 
or  shop. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  every  child  of  proper  age  is 
kept  in  school.  "Public  sentiment,'*  writes  one  of  the  agents, 
**does  not  yet  everywhere  sustain  literal  enforcement  of  the 
attendance  law.  The  belief  that  deprivation  of  schooling  is 
an  offense  not  only  against  the  child  but  against  the  public 
welfare  is  not  universal."®^  Yet  patient  and  sympathetic  ef- 
forts of  teachers,  supervisors,  and  state  agents,  together  with 
steadily  improving  schools,  are  resulting  in  continued  im- 
provement in  attendance.®^ 

The  School  Census.^^  Closely  connected  with  school  attend- 
ance is  the  school  census.  With  the  highly  organized  machinery 
of  the  state  board,  one  might  expect  in  Connecticut  a  con- 
tinuous school  census  with  the  resulting  check  upon  all  children 
of  school  age.  Apparently  no  effort  has  been  made  to  secure 
this  modern  aid  to  the  enforcement  of  child  labor  and  attend- 
ance laws.  A  school  census  is  taken  annually  in  September 
under  the  direction  of  the  school  committees  of  the  various 
districts,  the  efficiency  and  accuracy  of  the  work  depending 
entirely  upon  local  conditions.  All  persons  over  four  and 
under  sixteen  years  of  age  are  supposed  to  be  listed.  The 
census,  though  taken  primarily  to  afford  a  proper  basis  for 


89.  Bev.  Statutes,  1902,  par.  2104. 

90.  Conn.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1912-13,  p.  11. 

91.  Ibid.,  1913-14,  p.  30. 

92.  Gen.  Statutes,  revision  of  1902,  sec.  2252  and  2255,  as  amended  by  Acts 
of  1913,  eh.  182. 


110   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

the  distribution  of  the  school  funds,  is  of  great  service  to  the 
compelling  officers.  Early  in  the  school  term  the  school  records 
and  the  enumeration  lists  are  compared  and  any  discrepancies 
must  be  accounted  for.  The  census  brings  to  the  attention  of 
the  proper  officers  the  names  of  the  children  who  have  come 
into  the  state  since  the  preceding  enumeration,  and  who  have 
not  entered  school.  The  law  also  directs  that  if  the  enumerat- 
ors find  children  not  attending  school  they  shall  ascertain  the 
reason  for  non-attendance,  and  if  such  children  are  at  work, 
they  shall  report  the  names  of  their  employers  or  of  the  es- 
tablishments where  they  are  employed.  Information  thus 
gathered  is  of  great  assistance  in  enforcing  both  the  attend- 
ance and  the  labor  laws. 

The  investigation  conducted  by  Miss  Sumner  and  Miss 
Hanks  reveals  a  varying  degree  of  accuracy  in  conducting  the 
school  census.  In  certain  places  forms  and  methods  have  been 
devised  which  approach  the  accuracy  of  a  continuous  census; 
in  others  several  hundred  names  appear  to  be  omitted  each 
year.®^  The  State  Board  of  Education  finds  the  present  census, 
imperfect  though  it  is,  of  great  assistance  in  bringing  children 
into  school,  but  why  it  has  not  vigorously  demanded  a  con- 
tinuous census,  maintained  under  its  own  direction,  is  difficult 
to  understand.  At  present  there  is  no  way  to  insure  contact 
with  children  coming  to  the  state  during  the  year,  after  the 
annual  enumeration.  Nor  is  there  assurance  that  children 
omitted  in  the  unscientific  enumeration  may  not  be  out  of 
school  and  illegally  employed.  In  a  state  which  depends  pri- 
marily upon  a  strict  enforcement  of  school  attendance  as  the 
safeguard  against  illegal  employment,  an  adequate  school 
census,  amended  from  day  to  day,  would  appear  to  be  in- 
dispensable. 

The  Employment  Certificate.^*  Prior  to  1911  an  age  certifi- 
cate was  required,  but  it  might  be  secured  from  the  town  clerk 
or  from  any  teacher  of  a  school  the  applicant  had  attended, 
or  in  case  such  record  were  not  available,  the  parent's  state- 
ment was  accepted.  The  brief  laws  of  1911  and  1913,  broadly 
interpreted  by  the  Board  of  Education,  afford  a  foundation 


93.  Children's  Bureau,  PulUcation  No.  12,  p.  29. 

94.  Acts,  1911,  ch.  119,  1913,  ch.  211. 


CONNECTICUT  111 

for  an  adequate  employment  certificate.  Certificates  are  issued 
only  at  the  central  offices  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  at 
Hartford,  or  at  an  office  of  an  agent  of  the  board.  They  are 
issued  in  triplicate,  one  copy  for  the  files  of  the  state  board, 
one  for  the  employer,  and  one  for  the  parent  of  the  child.  The 
employer's  copy  is  usually  sent  him  by  mail,  though  in  some 
cases  it  is  carried  to  him  by  the  child.  On  termination  of  em- 
ployment the  employer  is  not  required  to  return  the  certificate, 
but  both  at  the  beginning  and  the  termination  of  employment 
he  must  notify  the  state  board  on  forms  provided  for  the  pur- 
pose and  attached  to  his  copy  of  the  certificate. 

When  a  child  leaves  employment  he  may  take  another  place 
and  work  for  one  week  on  his  parents*  copy  of  the  original 
certificate.  Meanwhile,  a  new  certificate  must  be  secured. 
After  a  certificate  has  once  been  granted  subsequent  ones  are 
issued  either  by  the  agent  issuing  the  original,  or  by  the  state 
board,  no  further  examination  or  formality  being  required. 

The  applicant  for  a  certificate  must  appear  in  person  at  the 
main  office  or  the  office  of  an  agent,  accompanied  by  one  of 
his  parents  or  by  his  guardian.  He  must  present  an  employ- 
ment ticket  or  other  written  promise  of  work  signed  by  the 
proposed  employer,  must  offer  evidence  of  the  date  of  his  birth, 
a  doctor's  certificate  that  he  is  physically  fit  to  work,  and 
must  prove  either  by  school  record  or  examination  that  he 
meets  the  educational  requirements.®*  The  law  requires  mere- 
ly evidence  of  age,  the  physical  examination  and  proof  of  the 
proper  educational  acquirements.  The  state  board  has  formu- 
lated the  other  requirements  on  the  assumption  that  they  are 
implied  in  the  law. 

The  child  labor  law  makes  no  specific  requirement  as  to 
school  attendance,  but  many  of  the  towns,  under  authority  of 
the  act  of  1905  have  fixed  a  minimum  leaving  grade  varying 
from  the  fifth  to  the  seventh.  In  issuing  working  papers  the 
agent  may  either  give  an  examination  in  the  required  subjects, 
reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  or  accept  the  leaving  certifi- 
cate of  the  local  school  authorities.  No  child  is  given  a  certi- 
ficate of  emplojmaent,  however,  unless  he  meets  the  leaving 


95.  Acts,  1919,  ch.  264.    Requires  examination  by  a  physician  designated  by 
the  State  Board  of  Education. 


112      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

requirements,  where  a  minimum  has  been  determined,  of  the 
town  in  which  he  resides. 

'  Prior  to  1919  no  physical  examination  was  required,  though 
the  law  gave  abundant  authority  to  the  representatives  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education  and  to  other  school  officials  to  send 
the  applicant  to  any  reputable  physician  for  such  examination, 
charging  the  expense  against  the  state.  Only  when,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  agent,  there  was  doubt  as  to  the  physical 
fitness  of  an  applicant  was  an  examination  demanded,  but  if 
a  child  found  at  work  appeared  to  be  in  poor  health  he  might 
be  sent  by  the  inspecting  officer  to  a  physician  and  excluded 
from  employment  until  pronounced  fit  to  resume  labor. 

Acting  under  the  very  general  provisions  of  the  law  the 
State  Board  of  Education  has  worked  out  a  reasonably 
adequate  method  of  determining  whether  or  not  the  applicant 
for  working  papers  is  of  legal  age.  In  case  documentary 
evidence  of  age  is  not  available,  however,  the  affidavit  of 
parent  or  guardian  is  accepted. 

Enforcement  of  the  Labor  and  Attendance  Laws,  Notwith- 
standing the  large  degree  of  unity  prevailing  in  Connecticut 
in  the  administration  of  laws  controlling  the  labor  and  school- 
ing of  children  there  are  two  separate  sets  of  inspectors,  one 
enforcing  the  laws  regulating  hours  of  labor,  character  of  em- 
ployment and  the  like,  the  other  looking  after  all  phases  re- 
lating to  age,  health,  school  attendance  and  working  papers, 
the  former  representing  the  department  of  factory  inspection, 
the  latter,  the  State  Board  of  Education.  For  the  purposes  of 
this  study  little  attention  need  be  given  to  the  duties  of  the 
factory  inspectors.  These  officials  are  chiefly  concerned  with 
the  material  conditions  under  which  labor  is  employed  in  fac- 
tories and  mercantile  establishments  throughout  the  state.®^ 
In  practice  there  is,  apparently,  rather  close  cooperation  be- 
tween the  two  sets  of  inspectors. 

The  regular  agents  of  the  State  Board  of  Education^^  per- 

96.  Of  1269  orders  given  by  the  factory  inspectors  in  a  single  year,  but  14 
referred  directly  to  children,  these  having  reference  to  the  employment  of 
minors  under  sixteen  in  unsuitable  occupations.  Ept.  State  Factory  Inspec- 
tor, 1914,  pp.  44-68. 

97.  Additional  agents  are  employed  from  time  to  time,  when  it  seems  neces- 
sary to  make  an  intensive  canvass  of  the  state  or  of  any  particular  district. 


CONNECTICUT  113 

form  a  great  variety  of  duties.  They  must  maintain  regular 
office  hours,  usually  in  several  different  towns  or  cities,  for 
the  purpose  of  issuing  employment  certificates;  they  hold 
monthly  meetings  at  the  capital  in  order  to  compare  notes  and 
determine  policies;  they  visit  as  frequently  as  possible  the 
seven  thousand  establishments  where  children  are  employed; 
they  stimulate  school  attendance,  follow  up  questionable  cases, 
confer  with  parents  and  teachers,  assist  local  attendance 
officers,  and  attend  to  a  vast  amount  of  routine  business  in 
connection  with  records  and  reports.  They  do  not  have  the 
power  to  prosecute  for  violation  of  the  laws  but  can  only  re- 
port to  the  state's  attorney  for  the  district,  who  alone  has 
authority  to  bring  action.  Inability  to  hale  an  offender  into 
court  does  not  necessarily  handicap  the  agents  of  the  board. 
The  spirit  of  their  work,  established  long  ago  by  Henry  M. 
Cleveland  and  Giles  Potter,  is  that  of  friendly,  sympathetic 
cooperation  with  children,  parents,  and  employers,  rather  than 
that  of  compulsion.  Something  of  this  spirit  might  be  lost 
were  the  agents  to  be  vested  with  power  to  bring  legal  action.^® 

The  Unemployed  Child.  Theoretically,  the  child  under  six- 
teen years  of  age  returns  to  school  immediately  on  termination 
of  employment  unless  he  secures  another  place,  in  which  case 
he  has  a  week  in  which  to  obtain  a  new  certificate.®^  In  prac- 
tice, the  child  who  has  once  been  granted  regular  working 
papers  is  extremely  unlikely  ever  to  return  to  school.  Usually 
the  child  who  leaves  the  regular  day  school  for  employment 
does  not  wish  to  return  and  will  do  so  only  under  compulsion. 
The  administrative  machinery  is  not  so  closely  adjusted  even 
in  Connecticut,  but  that  there  may  be  a  considerable  lapse  of 
time  between  the  termination  of  employment  and  action  on 
the  part  of  the  compelling  officer.  Further,  the  schools,  as 
now  organized,  have  little  to  offer  to  the  child  who  has  once 
lost  step,  nor  are  teachers  anxious  to  receive  him  in  their  nice- 
ly graded  classes. 

At  present  the  state  does  little  for  the  certificated  child  out 


98.  In  the  school  year  1919-1920,  twenty-three  employers  and  eighty-four 
parents  were  fined  for  the  violation  of  laws  relating  to  the  employment  and 
schooling  of  children. 

99.  He  may  work  for  one  week  on  the  parents'  copy  of  the  original  certifi- 
cate. 


114      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

of  a  job.  His  educational  problem  is  not  likely  to  be  solved 
until  Connecticut  provides  for  a  system  of  compulsory  con- 
tinuation schools  for  working  children,  with  special  all-day 
classes  for  those  temporarily  out  of  employment.^^^ 

Miss  Sumner  and  Miss  Hanks  conclude:  '*The  strongest 
single  feature  of  the  Connecticut  system  and,  indeed,  the  source 
of  most  of  its  other  strong  features,  seems  to  be  the  centraliza- 
tion of  control  over  the  entire  procedure  relating  to  certifi- 
cates throughout  the  state  in  the  hands  of  the  State  Board  of 
Education.  "^°^  This  statement  may  be  accepted  without  reser- 
vation. Here  there  is  the  most  practical  recognition  of  the 
close  relationship  of  compulsory  school  attendance  and  the 
control  of  child  employment  to  be  found  in  the  Union.  While 
the  statutes  leave  much  to  be  desired,  they  are  so  interpreted 
and  administered  by  the  board  of  education  as  to  place  the 
state  well  to  the  fore  in  the  control  and  supervision  of  working 
children.  With  the  establishment  of  suitable  compulsory  con- 
tinuation education  the  conditions  could  easily  be  made  most 
admirable.  It  would  seem  that  other  states  might  well  profit 
by  this  example  of  centralized  authority  with  accompanying 
efficiency  in  administration. 


100.  The  required  attendance  upon  evening  classes  as  provided  in  the  law 
of  1919  can,  in  no  adequate  way,  meet  the  educational  needs. 

101.  Children's  Bureau,  Pub.  No.  12,  p.  51. 


CHAPTER  VI 
NEW  YORK 

The  first  compulsory  education  law  in  the  state  of  New  York 
was  a  special  measure  enacted  in  1831  requiring  that  all 
children  between  five  and  sixteen  years  of  age  detained  in 
county  poor-houses  ''be  taught  and  educated  in  the  same 
manner  as  children  are  now  taught  in  the  common  schools  of 
this  state,  at  least  one-fourth  part  of  the  time  said  paupers 
shall  remain  in  said  poor-houses."^  In  order  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  this  law  schools  were  established  within  the 
poor-houses  themselves.  They  were,  as  might  be  expected,  of 
inferior  grade,  yet  were  maintained  for  many  years,  affording 
the  sole  means  of  instruction  to  thousands  of  children.^ 

The  first  task  of  those  interested  in  universal  education  in 
this  state  was  to  secure  legislation  requiring  the  establishment 
and  support  of  public  schools  by  local  communities  throughout 
the  commonwealth.  It  was  not  until  1848  that  such  legislation 
was  enacted,^  and  even  then  great  difficulty  was  experienced 
in  enforcing  its  requirements;  indeed,  the  rural  communities, 
by  a  decided  majority  voted  in  1850  to  abandon  the  newly 
established  system,  and  it  was  only  by  the  dominating  in- 
fluence of  the  cities  that  the  law  was  retained.  It  was  not 
possible  to  make  the  system  entirely  free  and  universal 
throughout  the  state  until  1867.* 

The  earlier  attitude  towards  the  labor  of  young  children 
was  maintained  more  persistently  in  New  York  than  in  any 
other  northern   state.    In   1830   a  prominent   newspaper   ex- 

1.  Laws  of  New  York,  1831,  ch.  277. 

2.  As  late  as  1875,  2,795  children  were  enrolled  in  these  poor-house  schools 
—  Senate  Documents,  1875,  52,  p.  7.  In  this  year  it  was  made  unlawful  to 
commit  children  between  three  and  sixteen  years  of  age  to  the  public  poor- 
houses  (Laws  of  1875,  ch.  173),  yet  the  schools  persisted  for  some  time, 
there  being  in  1889  608  children  receiving  instruction  in  the  institutions. — 
Senate  Documents,  1889,  No.  40. 

3.  Laws  of  1849,  ch.  140. 

4.  Laws  of  1867,  ch.  406. 

115 


116      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

pressed  what  was  probably  a  generally  accepted  opinion  in 
saying: 

**The  trades  and  handicrafts  generally  must  be  continued; 
a  full  apprenticeship  must  be  served;  and  with  these  neces- 
sities of  society  a  full,  liberal  education  for  the  artisans  and 
laboring  youth  would  be  incompatible.  The  thriving  master- 
mechanics  might,  as  they  can  now  do,  place  their  children  on 
a  level  Avith  the  wealthy,  in  point  of  education ;  but  they  must 
ever  employ  boys  and  men  comparatively  uneducated,  or  their 
business  would  be  at  an  end."^ 

But,  as  in  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts,  working  men 
were  not  willing  to  live  under  the  limitations  which  the  more 
aristocratic  social  groups  had  laid  upon  them,  as  is  evidenced 
in  the  long  and  bitter  fight  they  waged  for  shorter  hours  of 
labor  and  for  free  schools.  Outside  their  ranks,  however,  the 
idea  of  anything  like  equal  educational  opportunity  for  the 
children  of  the  poor  and  the  rich  was  very  remote.®  The  in- 
fluence of  labor  was  sufficient  to  secure  in  1830  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  legislative  committee  to  inquire  into  the  state  system 
of  apprenticeship.  This  committee  made  a  superficial  study 
of  the  conditions  of  labor  in  some  of  the  larger  factories.  It 
was  found  that  young  children  were  at  work  in  crowded  rooms, 
poorly  ventilated,  and  at  labor  excessively  severe.  The  report 
indicates  that  child  labor  had  already  reached  a  stage  which 
might  have  aroused  grave  concern  had  there  been  sufficient 
agitation.  But  this  was  a  period  when  it  was  not  safe  to  offend 
employers  of  labor  lest  they  remove  their  industries  to  a  more 
liberal  state.  ..The  committee,  therefore,  hastened  to  take  the 
edge  from  their  criticism  by  extolling  the  virtues  of  the  manu- 
facturers to  whom  they  referred  as  ''those  patriotic  men,  who, 
in  the  pursuit  of  wealth  in  a  laudable  business,  have  volun- 
tarily established  such  regulations  to  insure,  so  far  as  prac- 
ticable to  the  children  and  youth  under  their  care  and  in  their 

5.  New  York  Morning  Herald,  Aug.  25,  1830;  quoted  in  Doc.  Hist.  Am. 
Indust.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  pp.  113-114. 

6.  The  effect  of  this  attitude  towards  the  children  of  the  working  classes 
and  the  long  continued  system  of  charitable  or  semi-charitable  education 
may  yet  be  seen.  It  is  not  difficult,  in  certain  parts  of  the  state,  to  find 
people,  even  among  those  of  only  moderate  means,  who  regard  the  public 
school  as  a  semi-charitable  organization,  and  who,  at  considerable  sacrifice, 
educate  their  children  in  private  institutions. 


NEW  YORK  117 

employ,  habits  of  industry,  skill  in  an  art  or  trade,  decency 
of  person  and  deportment,  comfort,  health,  a  moral,  religious 
and  business  education — beautifully  illustrating  in  their  little 
communities  the  inestimable  value  of  moral  worth.  "'^     Again 
in  1836    a  half-hearted    attempt  was   made  to    provide  some 
educational  opportunities  for  factory  children,  but  the  methods 
by  which  the  agitators  were  quieted  and  legislative  action 
blocked  would  indicate  that  already  those  who  were  profiting 
by    unrestricted    child    labor    were    well    organized    in    the 
Assembly.^    It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  dangers  of  the  sit- 
uation were  beginning  to  be  realized  at  this  time.    The  Secre- 
tary of  State,  in  his  capacity  as  superintendent  of  common 
schools,  frequently  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  many  young 
children  were  employed  in  the  factories  of  the  state  and  very 
guardedly  suggested  relief  through  some  form  of  compulsory 
education,  saying,  in  one  instance,  that  parents,  disregarding 
the  obligations  resting  upon  them,  *' ought  to  be  visited  with 
such  disabilities  as  will  induce  them,  from  interest  if  not  from 
principle,  to  cause  the  child  to  be  instructed  at  least  in  read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic."^ 

That  child  labor  was  recognized  as  a  real  problem  by  the 
time  the  establishment  of  public  schools  throughout  the  state 
had  been  made  compulsory  upon  communities  is  clearly  set 
out  in  other  reports  of  the  superintendent.^^  Meanwhile,  the 
working  men  in  seeking  to  gain  the  ten-hour  day,  were  ad- 
vocating a  limit  to  the  employment  of  children.  Through  their 
influence  a  bill  was  introduced  in  1849  providing  for  the  ex- 
clusion from  factories,  furnaces  and  workshops  of  children 
under  six  years  of  age,  while  those  under  twelve  were  not  to 
be  employed  in  such  establishments  without  their  consent  for 
more  than  eight  hours  in  any  one  day.  An  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt was  made  to  attach  a  schooling  clause  to  this  bill,  but 
without  such  provision  it  finally  passed  the  House,  only  to 


7.  Assembly  Documents,  1832,  No.  308,  p.  176.    See  also  Woman  and  Child 
Wage-Earners  in  TJ.  S.,  Vol.  VI,  p.  104. 

8.  Assembly  Documents,  1836,  No.  233,  p.  4;   Woman  and  Child  Wage- 
Earners  in  TJ.  S.,  op.  cit.,  p.  107. 

9.  Ept.  Swpt.  Com.  Schs.,  1832,  p.  23. 

10.  For  example,  1849,  p.  20;  1852,  p.  23. 


118      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

die  in  committee  in  the  Senate.^^  Apparently  labor  and  educa- 
tional interests  were  unable  alone  to  secure  favorable  con- 
sideration at  the  hands  of  the  Assembly,  but  in  1853  philan- 
thropic organizations  in  the  state  made  a  special  plea  for 
legislation  to  check  truancy.  The  governor,  in  his  annual 
message,  supported  the  movement  and  a  legislative  committee 
was  appointed  to  consider  the  matter.  This  committee,  in  its 
report,  advocated  in  more  definite  terms  than  had  hitherto  been 
employed,  a  mild  form  of  compulsory  school  attendance,  con- 
cluding with: 

*'If  the  parent,  guardian,  or  master  of  the  child  is  intemper- 
ate, incompetent,  or  indifferent,  the  law  should  take  their 
place,  and  see  that  the  child  is  properly  trained.  If  they  are 
avaricious,  and  desire  to  speculate  for  gain  out  of  the  tender 
bone  and  sinews  of  the  child,  to  the  entire  neglect  of  its  mental 
and  moral  culture,  and  the  debasement  of  its  character,  the 
strong  hand  of  the  law  should  restrain  that  avarice  and  en- 
force the  child's  just  rights. "^^ 

This  report  was  followed  by  the  well  known  truancy  law 
of  1853,^^  the  chief  provisions  of  which  are  as  follows: 

1.  Children  between  the  ages  of  five  and  fourteen  found 
wandering  in  the  streets  or  lanes  of  any  city  or  incorporated 
village,  idle  and  truant,  without  any  lawful  occupation,  might 
be  restrained  from  wandering  about  and  might  be  required  to 
remain  upon  the  premises  of  parent  or  guardian,  or  caused  to 
engage  in  some  lawful  occupation,  and  might  be  required  to 
attend  school  for  at  least  four  months  each  year  until  four- 
teen years  of  age. 

2.  The  court  was  given  power  to  require  the  parent  or 
guardian  to  enter  into  a  written  agreement  to  fulfill  these 
obligations,  giving  security  for  the  same. 

3.  If,  within  a  reasonable  time  the  parent  or  guardian 
failed  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  law,  the  child  might  be 
put  under  the  charge  of  the  overseers  of  the  poor,  set  at  work 
by  them,  and  given  instruction  in  the  elementary  branches,  or 
ho  might  be  bound  out  by  them  as  an  apprentice. 

4.  In  case  the  parent  or  guardian  entered  into  a  written 
agreement  to  care  for  the  child  according  to  the  terms  of  the 
law  and  it  was  found  that  he  ''habitually  and  intentionally" 

11.  Senate  Journal,  1849,  p.  453. 

12.  Assembly  Documents,  1853,  No.  94,  p.  2. 

13.  Laws  of  1853,  ch.  185. 


NEW  YORK  119 

violated  that  agreement,  an  action  might  be  brought  against 
him  and  penalty  recovered  to  the  extent  of  fifty  dollars  and 
costs. 

This  measure  in  no  respect  met  the  evils  of  child  labor; 
rather,  it  encouraged  the  employment  of  the  young  children 
of  the  poor.  It  shows  little  advance  over  the  English  poor  law 
of  the  Elizabethan  period  in  its  conception  of  the  rights  of 
childhood,  yet  it  was  not  repugnant  to  the  public  opinion  of 
the  time,  accustomed  to  accept  the  education  of  the  children 
of  the  poor  as  a  worthy  form  of  public  charity.^*  But  a  pro- 
gressive element  was  beginning  to  recognize  the  inconsistency 
of  an  educational  system  which,  in  a  state  whose  existence  was 
dependent  upon  a  free  and  intelligent  citizenship,  deliberately 
pauperized  the  children  of  those  who  could  not  pay  the  rates 
still  almost  universally  required,  and  as  an  alternative  sent 
them,  without  schooling,  into  the  mills  and  factories  as  opera- 
tives. Governor  Myron  G.  Clark,  who  was  committed  to  the 
free-school  program,  pointed  out  in  one  of  his  annual  messages 
to  the  legislature  the  defects  of  the  school  law  which  provided 
that  those  unable  to  pay  the  assessed  rates  should  be  relieved 
at  public  expense,  thus  becoming  *'the  recipients  of  public 
charity."  **The  worst  features  of  the  old  law  have  been  pre- 
served," he  said.  *' Education  is  still  regarded  as  a  matter  of 
charity  and  not  a  right.  "^^ 

The  law  of  1853,  unsupported  by  any  general  attendance  or 
child  labor  provisions,  and  with  inadequate  means  of  enforce- 
ment, was  of  little  value  beyond  its  slight  service  in  pointing 
the  way  to  later  advancement.^^  There  was  no  further  legis- 
lation of  this  nature  for  a  period  of  twenty-one  years,  when, 
in  1874  the  first  general  compulsory  school  attendance  law  of 
the  state  was  enacted.  Following  the  Civil  War  labor  interests 
had  again  become  active  and  had  renewed  the  long  interrupt- 
ed agitation  for  the  restriction  of  child  labor.  The  claims  of 
adult  labor  had,  however,  been  placed  first,  and  it  was  not  un- 


14.  Assembly  Documents,  1855,  No.  3,  p.  13. 

15.  Ihid.,  p.  14. 

16.  Charles  E.  Fitch,  in  his  '^History  of  the  Common  School  in  New  York," 
speaking  of  this  law  says,  "It  was,  however,  enforced  spasmodically  and 
irrationally,  if  it  may  be  said  that  it  was  enforced  at  all.''  Bpt.  'n.  T. 
Supt.  Puh.  Inst.,  1904,  p.  95. 


120      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

til  1871  when  those  interested  in  the  Children's  Aid  Society 
of  New  York  City  turned  their  attention  to  legislation,  that  a 
definite  program  in  behalf  of  the  child  was  undertaken.  In 
that  year  a  bill  looking  to  the  relief  of  factory  children  was 
introduced,  but,  due  to  the  strong  opposition  of  merchants  and 
manufacturers,  it  was  successfully  resisted  in  that  and  succeed- 
ing legislatures  until  1874,  when  the  friends  of  this  movement 
and  the  advocates  of  compulsory  school  attendance  joined 
forces  and  secured  the  passage  of  a  measure  intended  to  in- 
sure an  elementary  education  for  every  child  in  the  state.^^ 
The  law  of  1874^»  provided : 

1.  That  those  having  control  of  children  between  eight  and 
fourteen  years  of  age,  of  proper  mental  and  physical  capacity, 
should  cause  them  to  attend  some  public  or  private  school  for 
at  least  fourteen  weeks  each  year,  unless  regularly  taught  at 
home  in  the  common  school  branches  for  a  like  period. 

2.  That  no  child  under  fourteen  was  to  be  employed  in  any 
business  whatever  unless,  during  the  preceding  year,  he  had 
received  instruction  as  required  by  law. 

3.  That  a  child  on  going  to  work  should  deliver  to  the  em- 
ployer a  certificate  of  schooling  signed  by  a  teacher  or  a  school 
trustee,  this  to  be  preserved  by  the  employer  and  exhibited 
on  demand  of  the  proper  examining  officer. 

4.  That  the  school  trustees  should,  in  September  and  Febru- 
ary of  each  year,  ''examine  into  the  situation  of  the  children 
employed  in  all  manufacturing  establishments  in  their  school 
districts,"  and  report  all  violations  to  the  chief  fiscal  officer 
of  the  city  or  the  supervisor  of  the  town,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  bring  action  for  the  recovery  of  the  fixed  penalty,  one  dollar 
for  the  first  offense,  five  dollars  for  each  week  thereafter,  for 
a  period  not  exceeding  thirteen  weeks. 

5.  That  text-books  should  be  furnished  by  the  district  if 
the  parent  or  guardian  was  unable  to  provide  them,  and  so 
stated  in  writing. 

6.  That  children  should  be  dealt  with  as  habitual  truants 
in  case  parents  were  unable  to  induce  them  to  attend  school. 

This  law  might  have  been  enforced  had  school  trustees  and 
others  entrusted  with  its  administration  set  themselves  resolute- 
ly to  the  task.  Experience  in  many  states  has  shown,  how- 
ever, that  no  such  general  compulsory  law  has  even  functioned 


17.  Fairchild,  Fac.  Leg.  of  N.  Y.,  p.  32. 

18.  Laws  of  New  TorTc,  1874,  ch.  421. 


NEW  YORK  121 

further  than  to  register  public  opinion.  This  measure  was  no 
more  effectual  than  others  of  its  type.  After  a  full  decade  of 
trial,  the  proportion  of  children  attending  school  was  actually 
less  than  before  its  enactment.^^  Superintendent  Andrew  S. 
Draper  Avrites  of  the  law: 

"It  may  as  well  be  said,  not  only  that  the  *  compulsory 
education  act'  has  not  been  effectual,  but  that  it  is  altogether 
doubtful  if,  in  its  present  shape,  it  is  capable  of  being  made 
so.^"  .  .  .  Moreover,"  the  Superintendent  adds,  *'the  schools  are 
full.  In  most  of  the  cities  the  accommodations  are  taxed  to 
the  utmost.  Any  effectual  execution  of  the  law  would  at  once 
create  the  necessity  for  additional  buildings  in  every  city  of 
the  state.  "21 

The  law  of  1874,  like  that  of  1853,  must  be  regarded  as 
merely  marking  an  historical  step  in  tlie  development  of  educa- 
tional ideals  in  the  state.  It  apparently  never  commanded  any 
degree  of  respect,  either  on  the  part  of  those  whom  it  was  in- 
tended to  control  or  on  the  part  of  those  whose  duty  it  was  to 
enforce  its  provisions.  It  did  not  even  serve  as  a  foundation 
for  later  legislation.  Indeed,  the  probability  is  that  the 
presence  of  this  law  upon  the  statute  books  operated  in  a 
direction  quite  opposite  from  that  which  w^as  intended.  It 
served  to  quiet,  for  a  time,  those  Avho  were  most  concerned  in 
the  welfare  of  w^orking  children,  giving  legal  assurance  that 
at  last  the  state  was  in  position  not  only  to  offer  educational 
advantages  to  all,  but  to  insist  that  parents  unwilling  to  per- 
mit their  children  to  accept  the  state's  offer  be  compelled  to 
do  so.  Twenty  years  after  its  enactment,  the  highest  educa- 
tional officer  in  the  state  condemns  it  by  sajdng,  **It  has  failed 
to  accomplish  anything  except  to  subject  itself  to  ridicule.  "^^ 

Meanwhile,  with  the  rapid  development  of  manufacturing, 
the  evils  of  child  labor  were  increasing.  Manufacturers  w^ere 
unwilling  to  permit  the  public  to  be  informed  as  to  the  con- 
ditions under  which  children  were  employed  in  their  establish- 
ments. An  authoritative  investigation  was  attempted  by  the 
Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  in  1884,  following  a  request 

19.  Ept.  Spt.  Pub.  Inst.,  1887,  p.  5. 

20.  Ibid.,  p.  6. 

21.  Ibid. 

22.  Ept.  Spt.  Pub.  Inst.,  1893,  p.  26. 


122      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

to  that  effect  made  by  the  State  Trades  Assembly.^^  The  Com- 
missioner undertook  the  desired  investigation  in  the  belief  that 
the  law  gave  him  authority  to  compel  unwilling  employers  to 
answer  questions  and  to  submit  to  visitation,  but  a  ruling  of 
the  Attorney  General  to  the  effect  that  he  could  not  *' safely 
undertake  to  compel  owners  or  proprietors  of  manufacturing 
establishments  to  open  them  to  his  personal  examination  and 
visitation''  limited  the  value  of  the  study  undertaken.^*  In 
carrying  out  the  investigation,  the  questionary  method  was 
employed,  information  being  obtained  from  151  establishments. 
The  returns  showed  267  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age, 
20  being  under  twelve,  employed  in  the  factories  visited.^^ 
Since  the  United  States  census  of  1880  showed  that  there  were 
in  New  York  State  42,000  manufacturing  establishments,^^  the 
actual  situation  in  1884,  if  the  institutions  investigated  were 
fairly  representative  of  the  remainder,  was  truly  appalling. 
There  must  have  been  not  far  from  75,000  children  less  than 
fourteen  years  of  age  regularly  employed  in  manufacturing 
industries,  more  than  5,000  of  them  being  less  than  twelve 
years  of  age,  and  about  1,600  less  than  eleven.  No  great  re- 
liance can  be  placed  on  this  estimate,  but  the  situation  was 
clearly  serious.  Certain  other  states  were  protecting  their 
children  by  laws  that  now  had  come  to  have  some  virility. 
Public  sentiment  in  New  York  was  demanding  equal  ad- 
vantages, both  in  labor  restrictions  and  in  educational  oppor- 
tunities. The  forces  interested  primarily  in  industrial  con- 
ditions and  the  directors  of  public  education  were  coming  to 
recognize  the  close  relationship  of  the  causes  they  represented. 
Yet  it  was  a  third  force,  philanthropy,  rather  than  organized 
labor  or  education,  that  took  the  initiative  in  the  campaign  for 
legislation.  To  Elbridge  T.  Gerry  more  than  any  other  single 
individual  must  be  given  credit  for  the  law  of  1886,  which 
formed  the  basis  of  New  York's  effective  system  for  the  pro- 
tection of  working  children.  In  1882,  as  President  of  the  New 
York  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children,  he, 

23.  Upt.  Bu.  Stat,  of  Lab.,  1884,  p.  9. 

24.  lUd.,  p.  20. 

25.  Ibid.,  table,  pp.  22-25. 

26.  Ibid,  p.  10. 


NEW  YORK  123 

together  with  Dr.  Abraham  Jaeobi,  President  of  the  New  York 
State  Medical  Society,  drafted  a  child  labor  bill  which  passed 
the  Senate,  but  was  assigned  a  place  on  the  calander  of  the 
House  too  late  to  reach  a  hearing  before  adjournment .^^  The 
next  year  the  bill  was  again  brought  forward,  but  by  this  time 
those  financially  interested  in  the  employment  of  children  had 
taken  warning  and  were  able  to  offer  bitter  and  successful 
opposition.  In  1884  the  Workmen's  Assembly  joined  in  the 
movement.  The  statistics  presented  by  the  Commissioner  of 
Labor  were  used  effectively,  and  Gerry's  bill  seemed  about  to 
pass.  Here,  however,  the  opponents  of  the  measure  adopted 
an  expedient  which  later  became  a  favorite  device  in  removing 
the  sting  from  threatening  legislation.  In  the  House,  the 
manufacturing  interests  succeeded  in  introducing  a  worthless 
substitute  for  the  Gerry  bill  which  had  passed  the  Senate,  and 
to  prevent  its  enactment  into  law  the  friends  of  the  original 
measure  were  obliged  to  kill  it  when  it  reached  the  Senate.^® 
The  tactics  of  the  manufacturers  served  to  unify  the  advocates 
of  protective  legislation.  Governor  David  B.  Hill  became  in- 
terested and  promised  his  support  to  the  Gerry  bill.  In  his 
message  to  the  legislature  in  1886  he  called  attention  to  the 
efforts  that  had  been  made  in  preceding  sessions  to  **  protect 
children  of  tender  years  from  the  demands  of  selfish  and  often 
cruel  and  exacting  taskmasters,"  saying  that  it  was  most  de- 
sirable that  an  act  be  passed  regulating  the  labor  of  all  minors 
and  prohibiting  the  employment  of  those  under  fourteen.^® 
Backed  by  the  Governor  of  the  state  and  by  an  aroused  public 
opinion,  a  bill  practically  the  same  as  the  original  measure  of 
previous  campaigns  was  introduced,  and  after  a  hard  fight  with 
the  manufacturing  interests  represented  by  strong  lobbies  at 
Albany,  it  became  a  law,  though  not  until  some  concessions 
had  been  made  and  some  highly  desirable  features  given  up.^° 
The  chief  provisions  of  this  law^^  were  as  follows: 

1.     No  minor  under  eighteen  and  no  woman  under  twenty- 


27.  Fairchild,  op,  cit.,  p.  40. 

28.  Ibid.,  p.  43. 

29.  Assembly  Documents,  1886,  No.  2,  p.  19. 

30.  Fairchild,  op.  cit.,  p.  45. 

31.  Laws  of  1886,  ch.  409. 


124      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

one  was  to  be  employed  more  than  sixty  hours  in  one  week, 
except  in  making  necessary  repairs. 

2.  The  employment  in  factories  of  all  children  under 
thirteen  was  forbidden;  employers  were  required  to  keep  a 
register  of  all  under  sixteen,  and  to  have  on  file  a  certificate 
showing  age  and  birthplace  of  each  child  between  thirteen  and 
sixteen,  such  data  being  verified  by  parent,  or  guardian,  or  by 
the  child  himself. 

3.  The  penalty  for  ** knowingly"  employing  a  child  in  viola- 
tion of  the  law  was  a  fine  of  not  less  than  fifty  nor  more  than 
one  hundred  dollars,  or  imprisonment  for  not  less  than  thirty 
days. 

4.  To  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  provision  was  made 
for  the  appointment  by  the  governor  of  a  factory  inspector 
and  one  assistant  inspector  having  power  to  visit  and  inspect 
manufacturing  establishments.^^ 

The  provisions  of  the  law  of  1886  were  entirely  inadequate 
to  met  the  existing  evils  of  child  labor.  It  carried  no  educa- 
tional requirements,  though  the  impotence  of  the  compulsory 
attendance  law  w^as  universally  recognized.  The  mere  state- 
ment of  parent  or  child  as  to  age  might  be  accepted,  and  at 
most  this  was  supported  only  by  affidavit,  a  kind  of  evidence 
already  discredited  in  Massachusetts  and  elsewhere.  Then,  too, 
the  task  set  the  factory  inspector  and  his  single  assistant,  with 
42,000  manufacturing  establishments  listed  in  the  state,  many 
of  them  employing  children,  was  not  a  simple  one.^^  But  a 
beginning  had  been  made,  and  on  this  measure  was  to  be  built 
an  enforceable  system.^*  The  first  notable  advance  was  made 
in  1889,^^  raising  the  age  limit  from  thirteen  to  fourteen,  re- 
quiring, also,  that  no  child  under  sixteen  might  be  employed 
in  a  factory  unless  able  to  read  and  write  simple  sentences  in 
English,  and  authorizing  inspectors  to  require  a  child  to  pro- 

32.  The  factory  inspector  was  required  to  report  annually  to  the  bureau  of 
labor  statistics.  The  following  year  it  was  provided  that  reports  be  made 
directly  to  the  legislature.  Laws  of  1887,  ch.  462.  In  1901,  the  bureau  of 
labor  statistics,  factory  inspection,  and  the  board  of  mediation  and  arbi- 
tration were  consolidated  in  the  Department  of  Labor.    Laws  of  1901,  ch.  9, 

33.  Under  the  law  of  1886,  no  establishment  was  regarded  as  a  factory 
unless  at  least  five  persons  were  employed  therein. 

34.  Fairchild  notes  that  up  to  1904,  the  child  labor  law  was  amended,  on 
the  average,  every  other  year.  In  the  following  decade  there  were  more 
than  twenty  amendments  and  laws  for  the  regulation  of  the  employment  of 
minors. 

35.  Laios  of  New  Yorlc,  ch.  560. 


NEW  YORK  125 

cure  a  physician's  certificate  in  case  he  appeared  unfit  to  per- 
form the  labor  in  Avhich  he  was  engaged.  The  amendment  also 
defined  a  factory  as  **any  place  where  goods  or  products  are 
manufactured,  repaired,  cleaned,  or  sorted,  in  whole  or  in 
part,"  thus  removing  an  element  of  indefiniteness  behind  which 
violators  had  been  able  to  hide ;  but,  as  in  the  original  law,  no 
establishment  employing  fewer  than  five  persons  was  included 
in  the  definition.  Three  years  later  the  provisions  of  the  law 
Avere  made  to  apply  to  any  mill,  factory,  or  workshop  where 
one  or  more  persons  were  employed.^® 

The  most  conspicuous  weakness  in  the  New  York  child  labor 
law,  persisting  until  its  revision  in  1903,  was  its  failure  to 
reach  parents  who  were  willing  to  misrepresent  the  age  of 
their  children  in  order  to  secure  employment  certificates.  If 
a  child  could  read  and  write  the  most  elementary  sentences  in 
English,  working  papers  could  always  be  secured  by  a  formal 
oath  before  a  notary.  As  in  other  states  relying  upon  this 
method  of  establishing  the  age  of  applicants,  perjury  was  com- 
mon. The  inspectors  were  morally  certain  that  large  numbers 
of  under-age  children  were  at  work  in  factories,  but  as  they 
were  usually  carefully  drilled  to  sustain,  when  questioned,  the 
sworn  statements  of  their  parents,  evidence  of  perjury  was 
difficult  to  obtain.^^  It  Avas  believed  that  the  situation  might 
be  relieved  by  entrusting  the  issuance  of  employment  certifi- 
cates to  the  local  health  authorities.  These  officials  were  in 
possession  of  such  vital  statistics  as  were  available,  data  later 
discovered  to  be  incomplete  and  of  little  value,  and  it  was 
hoped  that  they  would  be  able  to  check  the  unlawful  employ- 
ment of  children.  Accordingly,  in  1896,  an  important  amend- 
ment^^ laid  upon  the  boards  of  health  full  responsibility  for 
issuing  all  working  papers,  the  certificate  to  include  the  date 
and  place  of  the  child's  birth,  his  description,  and  a  statement 
that  the  board  of  health  had  satisfied  itself  that  the  child  was 
at  least  fourteen  years  of  age  and  was  physically  fit  for  the 
work  he  intended  to  do.  A  school  attendance  clause  in  harmony 
v.ith  the  requirements  of  the  compulsory  education  law  v/as 


36.  Laws  of  1892,  ch.  673. 

37.  Ept.  N.  Y.  Fact.  Insp.,  1886,  p.  117. 

38.  Laws  of  1896,  ch.  991. 


126   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

included  in  this  measure,  a  certificate  from  the  school  author- 
ities being  acceptable  as  evidence  of  attendance,  but  the  board 
of  health  was  expected  to  satisfy  itself  by  examination  that 
the  applicant  was  able  to  read  and  write.^® 

At  this  session  of  the  legislature  a  law  was  enacted  seeking 
to  regulate  the  employment  of  children  in  mercantile  establish- 
ments, and  its  enforcement,  singularly  enough,  was  laid  upon 
the  boards  of  health.  Social  workers  had  long  known  that 
grave  abuses  existed  in  some  of  the  large  department  stores 
in  the  cities,  but  all  efforts  to  correct  them  had  been  unsuccess- 
ful. In  1895  a  resolution  was  presented  to  the  Assembly  ask- 
ing for  an  investigation  on  the  grounds  that  100,000  women 
in  New  York  City,  many  of  them  with  families  to  support, 
were  working  for  sixty  cents  per  day.  In  accordance  with  the 
terms  of  the  resolution  a  committee  was  created  and  directed 
to  inquire  into  the  situation  and  report.  The  Avork  of  this 
committee,  headed  by  the  Honorable  P.  W.  Reinhardt,  Jr.,  did 
much  to  arouse  public  opinion  and  to  make  possible  the  legis- 
lation that  followed  its  report.  A  more  complete  study  of  the 
conditions  under  which  women  and  children  were  employed 
than  had  hitherto  been  attempted  in  this  state  was  undertaken. 
Many  public  hearings  were  held,  more  than  two  hundred  and 
fifty  witnesses  were  examined,  and  extended  personal  investi- 
gations were  conducted.  The  report  of  this  committee  is 
eloquent  testimony  to  the  inadequacy  of  both  child  labor  and 
compulsory  education  lav/s  thus  far  enacted.  Many  young 
children  were  found  to  be  employed  contrary  to  law,  particu- 
larly in  the  garment  trades.  *^  These  children  were  under- 
sized, poorly  clad,  and  dolefully  ignorant,  unacquainted  with 
the  simplest  rudiments  of  a  common  school  education,  having 
no  knowledge  of  the  simplest  figures  and  unable  in  many  cases 
to  write  their  own  names  in  the  native  or  any  other 
language."*^  The  committee  characterized  child  labor  as  one 
of  the  most  extensive  evils  existing  in  the  city,  *'a  constant 
and  grave  menace  to  the  welfare  of  its  people.'*    The  employ- 

39.  Still  a  legal  requirement,  but  probably  never  seriously  undertaken,  out- 
side the  largest  cities. —  Employment  Certificate  System  in  New  York, 
Children's  Bureau  Pub.  No.  17,  p.  60. 

40.  Spt.  Beinhardt  Com.,  p.  3. 


NEW  YORK  127 

ment  certificate  it  regarded  as  worthless.  Parents  either  had 
no  regard  for  the  oath  or  were  too  ignorant  to  understand  its 
nature.  It  was  found,  also,  that  certain  notaries  were  making 
a  regular  practice  of  taking  the  affidavits  of  children  clearly 
under  the  legal  age,  often  charging  for  such  service  double 
the  legal  fee.*^  Those  who  were  interested  in  the  welfare  of 
New  York  children  had  been  aware  that  conditions  were  far 
from  ideal,  but  probably  few  had  realized  the  seriousness  of 
the  situation.  Legislation  could  no  longer  be  avoided,  though 
the  forces  that  had  for  years  successfully  resisted  adequate 
control  were  strong  enough  to  secure  such  modification  of  the 
measures  proposed  as  to  render  them  relatively  ineffective. 
The  steps  taken  to  strengthen  the  employment  certificate  have 
already  been  mentioned.*^  More  important  than  this  amend- 
ment, at  least  in  principle,  was  the  mercantile  law,*'  the  pro- 
visions of  which  were: 

1.  No  male  under  sixteen  and  no  female  under  twenty-one 
was  to  be  employed  in  any  place  where  goods,  wares,  or  mer- 
chandise was  offered  for  sale,  for  more  than  sixty  hours  per 
week,  nor  more  than  ten  hours  per  day,  except  for  the  purpose 
of  shortening  one  working  day  in  the  week. 

2.  Work  before  seven  in  the  morning  and  after  ten  at 
night  was  forbidden. 

3.  It  was  provided  that  the  law  should  not  be  so  inter- 
preted as  to  prevent  the  employment  of  any  person  on  any 
Saturday  of  the  year,  and  that  none  of  the  restrictive  pro- 
visions should  apply  during  the  latter  half  of  December  of 
each  year. 

4.  Of  all  children  under  sixteen,  age  and  school  attendance 
certificates  were  required,  these  to  be  issued  by  the  local  health 
authorities  as  in  case  of  children  employed  in  factories. 

5.  The  employment  of  children  under  fourteen  was  for- 
bidden, except  in  vacation,  when  those  twelve  years  of  age,  if 
able  to  read  and  write  simple  sentences  in  English,  might  se- 
cure the  necessary  papers. 

6.  The  penalty  for  violation  was  not  less  than  twenty  nor 
more  than  one  himdred  dollars  for  the  first  offense,  between 
forty  and  two  hundred  dollars  or  imprisonment  for  not  over 
sixty  days  for  the  second  offense,  and  for  succeeding  violations 
a  larger   fine  or  a  longer   jail  sentence  or  both   fine  and  im- 

41.  Ibid.,  p.  6. 

42.  Supra,  p.  125. 

43.  Laws  of  1896,  ch.  384.  ; 


128      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

prisonment  were  provided.  ^  ^ 

7.  It  was  made  the  duty  of  the  health  authorities  to  en- 
force the  measure.  Unless  prosecution  was  begun  within  thirty 
days  after  the  alleged  violation  of  the  law,  there  was  no  case. 
The  method  of  enforcement  of  the  mercantile  law  was  in  it- 
self sufficient  to  insure  the  defeat  of  its  purposes.  Not  only 
were  local  boards  of  health  to  issue  working  papers  to  children 
under  sixteen,  as  in  the  case  of  employment  in  factories,  but 
they  were  given  entire  responsibility  for  the  enforcement  of 
the*  measure.  The  boards  were  neither  prepared  to  take  over 
this  additional  duty,  lying  almost  wholly  outside  the  range  of 
their  normal  activities,  nor  could  they  be  expected  to  develop 
any  real  interest  in  the  matter.  As  a  natural  consequence,  en- 
forcement, as  will  appear  later,  was  a  mere  farce  until  trans- 
ferred in  1908  to  the  Department  of  Labor.** 

Meanwhile,  notable  progress  was  made  in  school  legislation. 
State  Superintendent  Andrew  S.  Draper  believed  that  the  time 
had  come  to  bring  New  York  into  line  with  the  movement, 
now  national  in  scope,  towards  enforceable  compulsory  attend- 
ance laws.  Of  the  old  measure  of  1874  nothing  could  be  ex- 
pected. It  depended  wholly  upon  local  public  sentiment  for 
its  validity,  and  experience  had  shown  that  such  sentiment 
was  not  infrequently  adverse  to  its  enforcement.*^  Clearly  a 
stronger  measure  was  necessary.  At  the  request  of  Dr.  Draper, 
Superintendent  Sherman  Williams,  of  the  Glens  Falls,  New 
York,  schools,  investigated  the  subject  of  compulsory  school 
attendance  in  the  state.  He  found  conditions  extremely  un- 
satisfactory, and  in  his  report  submitted  on  December  second, 
1887,  he  urged  decisive  action.*^  A  bill  was  drawn  up  em- 
bodying his  recommendations,  and  in  1889  it  was  passed  by 
the  legislature,  only  to  meet  the  disapproval  of  Governor  David 
B.  Hill,  largely  because  of  his  objections  to  certain  provisions 
regarding  a  state  school  for  incorrigibles.*''  The  bill  had  been 
opposed,  also,  by  those  interested  in  parochial  schools.  It  had 
originally  provided  that  teachers  in  such  schools  should  take 

44.  Laws  of  1908,  ch.  520. 

45.  Bpt.  Supt.  Pub.  Inst.,  1904,  p.  9C. 

46.  Ibid. 

47.  Ibid.,  1890,  appendix,  p.  143. 


NEW  YORK  129 

the  regular  examinations  as  required  of  those  who  taught  in 
the  public  schools.  This  was  sufficient  to  gain  the  hostility 
of  a  certain  element,  who  feared  that  the  bill  threatened  to 
interfere  with  schools  under  church  and  private  control.*^  The 
Governor  was  not  opposed  to  the  principle  of  compulsory- 
education,  and  in  1892  he  urged  the  passage  of  a  ''carefully 
guarded"  law.  The  public  school  superintendents,  the  State 
Teachers'  Association,  and  the  forces  backing  the  child  labor 
law  aligned  themselves  with  the  movement,*^  and  in  1894,  just 
twenty  years  after  the  first  so-called  compulsory  attendance 
law  was  passed,  the  second  measure  was  enacted.  This  second 
law  was  not  permitted  to  lie  unused  upon  the  statute  books, 
but  its  enforcement  was  undertaken  to  such  effect  that  after 
fourteen  years  of  operation,  strengthened  meantime  by  various 
amendments,  the  state  superintendent  could  describe  it  as  **by 
far  the  best  law  upon  this  subject  to  be  found  in  any  of  the 
states.  "^0 

The  essential  features  of  the  law  of  1894  were: 

1.  All  children  between  eight  and  twelve  years  of  age  were 
to  attend  some  school  for  the  full  session. 

2.  Those  between  twelve  and  sixteen  were  to  attend  for 
the  entire  session  unless  regularly  employed. 

3.  Those  between  twelve  and  fourteen  were  to  attend  for 
at  least  eighty  days. 

4.  It  was  made  a  misdemeanor  to  employ  a  child  between 
eight  and  t\\'elve  years  of  age  during  any  part  of  the  school 
session,  or  to  employ  one  between  twelve  and  fourteen  unless 
he  presented  a  certificate  signed  by  the  superintendent  of 
schools  or  by  some  other  properly  designated  officer. 

5.  Parents  or  guardians  were  required  to  keep  their  children 
in  school,  subject  to  a  penalty  of  not  more  than  five  dollars 
for  the  first  offense,  and  not  more  than  fifty  dollars  or  not  to 
exceed  thirty  days  in  jail,  or  both  fine  and  imprisonment  for 
each  subsequent  offense,  but  the  penalty  did  not  apply  if  those 
in  charge  of  children  notified  the  school  authorities  of  their 
inability  to  cause  them  to  attend. 

6.  The  appointment  of  local  truant  officers  was  made  obli- 
gatory except  in  the  rural  communities. 


48.  Ibid.,  p.  147.    Note  antagonisms  of  parochial  and  private  schools  at  this 
time  to  the  Bennet  Law  in  Wisconsin,  seq.,  pp.  212f. 

49.  Ibid.,  1893,  appendix,  p.  139. 

50.  Ept.  N.  T.  Ed.  Dept.,  1908,  p.  7. 


130      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

7.  The  state  superintendent  was  given  authority  to  with- 
hold one-half  the  public  school  funds  from  any  district  failing 
to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  law.  He  was  also  authorized 
to  appoint  an  assistant  to  inquire  into  the  extent  to  which  the 
compulsory  measure  was  enforced. 

It  is  readily  seen  that  the  close  relationship  which  should 
exist  between  compulsory  school  attendance  and  compulsory 
exclusion  from  labor  was  not  fully  appreciated  by  those  re- 
sponsible for  this  legislation.  An  easy  method  was  left,  also, 
for  parents  to  escape  responsibility  for  the  attendance  of  their 
children.  But  vigorous  enforcement  was  now  possible,  due  in 
part  to  a  better  public  attitude,  in  part  to  a  degree,  however 
slight,  of  central  authority.  Apparently  some  20,000  children 
were  brought  into  school  almost  at  once,*^^  this  number  not 
including  any  illegally  at  work,  but  representing  those  who 
had  been  out  of  school  because  of  truancy  or  through  the 
neglect  of  parents.''^ 

Within  a  year  the  process  of  strengthening  the  law  by 
amendment  was  begun.  In  1895  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the 
State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  to  cause  a  census 
to  be  taken  biennially  in  all  cities  of  10,000  population  and 
upward.  Provision  was  made  for  gathering  such  data  as  would 
give  definite  information  as  to  the  number  of  children  in  school, 
as  well  as  the  number  absent  without  good  cause  or  employed. 
Provision  was  also  made  for  two  additional  attendance  officers 
or  assistants  who,  representing  the  department  of  public  in- 
struction, were  to  spend  their  time  among  the  schools  investi- 
gating the  extent  to  which  the  attendance  law  was  enforced.^^ 
These  assistants,  after  visiting  most  of  the  cities  in  the  state, 
reported  that  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  the  law  was  being 
'*  vigorously  enforced,  with  the  exercise  of  good  judgment  and 
discretion.**'*  Apparently  these  state  officials  and  the  local 
truant  officers  gave  no  attention  to  children  who  were  illegally 
employed,  seeking  onlj'^  to  return  to  school  the  idlers  of  com- 
pulsory attendance  age.''    Experience  revealed  weaknesses  in 

51.  Bpt.  Supt.  Pub.  Inst,  1896,  p.  1046. 

52.  Ihid.,  p.  1048. 

53.  Laws  of  1895,  ch.  550. 

54.  Bpt.  Supt.  Puh.  Inst.,  1896,  p.  1045. 

55.  Ibid.,  p.  1048. 


NEW  YORK  131 

the  law  and  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  began 
to  urge  further  amendments,  recommending  that  the  biennial 
census  be  extended  to  the  entire  state,  that  attendance  officers 
be  required  in  the  common  school  districts,  and  that  parents 
claiming  exemption  from  the  penalty  of  the  law  on  the  grounds 
of  inability  to  cause  their  children  to  attend  school  be  required 
to  present  adequate  proof  of  the  truth  of  their  contention.  In 
1896  the  second  and  third  recommendations  were  embodied  in 
the  law. 

The  year  1903  was  an  important  one  in  the  history  of 
children's  legislation  in  New  York.  Educational  and  labor 
laws  were  strengthened  and  brought  into  harmony,  and  new 
forces  began  to  manifest  themselves  in  greater  publicity  and 
in  campaigns  of  education.  The  laws  up  to  this  time  had  been 
recognized  as  inadequate,  and  in  some  of  their  provisions  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  of  enforcement.  The  mercantile  law  had  not 
been  regarded  seriously,  and  it  had  remained  largely  in- 
operative. Yet  the  preceding  decade  had  been  far  from  un- 
fruitful; not  only  had  legislative  standards  been  advanced 
against  sharp  opposition,  but  significant  results  had  been 
achieved  in  enforcement.  More  than  130,000  children  had  been 
brought  into  school,  74,911  truants  had  been  arrested  by  truant 
officers,  and  2206  persons  in  parental  relations  had  been  pro- 
secuted for  neglect  of  their  duty.'^®  Just  what  proportion  of 
these  prosecutions  had  resulted  in  convictions  the  published 
reports  of  the  superintendent  do  not  indicate.  It  appears  that 
the  general  practice  was  to  impose  a  small  fine,  then  suspend 
execution  of  the  sentence,  the  parent  agreeing  to  comply  with 
the  law.^^  Employers  violating  the  labor  laws  were  still  treat- 
ed very  tenderly  by  inspectors  and  prosecuting  officers,  as 
evidenced  by  the  record  of  the  last  three  years  of  this  decade  :^^ 

1901       1902       1903 
Violations  of  the  child  labor  laws....33,766    49,538    50  572 

Convictions   70  7  39 

Fines  $2,010       $215    $1,060 

56.  Bpt.  Supt.  Pub.  Inst.y  1904,  pp.  24f . 

57.  lUd.,  1896,  p.  1051. 

58.  Upt.  N.  T.  Child  Lai.  Com.  to  Gov.  Biggins,  1905,  p.  19     Bnt   N   T 
Dpi.  of  Labor,  1902,  Vol.  I,  pp.  1,  16,  III,  10.  •       r  •      .      . 


132   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

It  has  been  observed  that  no  really  effective  legislation  in 
behalf  of  working  children  was  possible  until  organized  labor 
was  able  to  enlist  the  support  of  political  parties.^^  It  might 
as  truly  be  said  that  political  forces  reach  an  early  limit  in 
their  usefulness  in  the  administration  of  the  laws  they  enact. 
Philanthropic  agencies  had  been  an  important  factor  in  secur- 
ing the  protective  legislation  thus  far  written  into  the  statutes, 
but  they  had  not  been  particularly  successful  in  stimulating 
ci^dc  forces  to  discharge  their  administrative  duties  effectively. 
There  was  a  painful  lack  of  organization  which  had  enabled 
vested  interests  not  only  to  secure  the  introduction  of  un- 
enforceable provisions  in  the  proposed  bills,  but  to  render  ad- 
ministration difficult  through  cumbersome  or  unusual  methods. 
But  the  decade  opening  with  1903  was  to  witness  a  decided 
change  in  organization.  Laws  **with  teeth  in  them"  were  to 
be  enacted,  enforcement  was  to  be  stimulated,  and  employers 
themselves  were  to  become,  to  an  appreciable  extent,  support- 
ers of  the  very  principles  they  had  so  long  successfully  op- 
posed. In  this  new  program,  the  New  York  Child  Labor  Com- 
mittee, established  in  1902,  was  the  organizing  and  directing 
force.  The  committee  was  created  in  response  to  a  very  defi- 
nite need.  In  the  summer  of  1902  a  sub-committee  of  the 
Neighborhood  Workers'  Association  of  New  York  City  under- 
took an  inquiry  into  the  condition  of  child  workers  in  the  city, 
emplojdng  Miss  Helen  Marot  for  the  purpose.  The  situation, 
apparently  not  much  improved  since  the  Reinhardt  report  in 
1896,  seemed  to  warrant  a  vigorous  campaign  for  legislation; 
a  permanent  child  labor  committee  was  formed  and  a  paid 
secretary,  Mr.  Fred  S.  Hall,  employed.^^     The  ensuing  cam- 


59.  Fairchild,  Fac.  Leg.  in  N.  Y.,  p.  29. 

60.  This  organization  has  proved  such  an  effective  educational  agency,  such 
a  potent  factor  in  securing  legislation  and  in  encouraging  its  enforcement, 
that  a  statement  of  its  aims  as  set  out  in  its  certificate  of  incorporation  is 
presented,  as  follows: 

1.  To  investigate  and  report  the  facts  concerning  child  labor  in  the  state 
of  New  York. 

2.  To  raise  the  standard  of  parental  responsibility  with  respect  to  the 
employment  of  children. 

3.  To  assist  in  protecting  children  by  suitable  legislation  against  prema- 
ture or  otherwise  injurious  employment,  and  thus  to  aid  in  securing  for 
them  an  opportunity  for  elementary  education  and  physical  development 
sufficient  for  the  demands  of  citizenship  and  the  requirements  of  indus- 
trial efficiency. 


NEW  YORK  133 

paign,  directed  by  Mr.  Hall  and  Mr.  Robert  Hunter,  chairman 
of  the  committee,  and  participated  in  by  some  of  the  best  in- 
formed and  most  experienced  child-welfare  workers  in  the 
United  States,  was  so  successful  as  to  give  New  York  un^ 
questioned  leadership  for  a  time  in  legislation  for  the  pro- 
tection of  children.  Since  the  day  it  entered  the  field,  the 
Child  Labor  Committee  has  remained  not  only  a  leader  in  the 
constant  fight  for  new  and  steadily  advancing  legislation,  but 
it  has  assisted  in  securing  more  efficient  officials  and  has  care- 
fully guarded  against  attempts  of  employers  to  clog  the  legal 
machinery  by  means  of  unworkable  measures. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  legislative  campaign  of  1903  was 
unexpectedly  successful.  The  necessity  for  better  laws  and 
more  adequate  means  of  enforcement  was,  to  be  sure,  generally 
recognized.  Excellent  publicity  w^as  secured  through  the  skill- 
ful management  of  the  new  Child  Labor  Committee.  The  press 
was  moved  to  demand  harmony  between  the  labor  and  com- 
piilsory  education  law.®^  Appeal  was  made  to  state  pride,  and 
the  relatively  backward  position  of  New  York  was  pointed 
out.®=^  Organized  labor,  having  secured  independent  data 
showing  the  evil  effects  of  the  labor  of  children,  threw  its 
strength  into  the  fight.^^  Yet  the  man  who  introduced  most 
of  the  child  labor  bills  that  later  became  law  had  little  hope 
that  they  would  pass.  A  letter  written  by  him  to  the  chair- 
man of  the  NeAv  York  Child  Labor  Committee  at  the  close  of 
the  session  is  of  interest,  showing  not  only  the  attitude  of  the 
friends  of  the  proposed  measures,  but  giving  a  contemporary 
opinion  of  the  efficiency  of  the  organization  backing  it.  **At 
the  outset,"  he  writes,  *'I  found  it  to  be  the  almost  universal 
opinion  held  by  members  of  the  Legislature  that  the  legislation 
vv^as  too  advanced,  and  would  never  be  enacted  into  law.  That 
the  fortunate  contrary  result  was  obtained  was  due  solely  to 
the  magnificent  campaign  waged  by  you.    So  thoroughly  was 


4.  To  aid  in  promoting  the  enforcement  of  laws  relating  to  child  labor. 

5.  To  form  auxiliary  associations  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing  these 
things. — From  A  Ten  Years*  War  Against  Child  Lahor  in  New  York 
State. 

61.  E.  g.j  New  YorJc  Mail  and  Express,  Jan.  10,  1903,  editorial. 

62.  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser,  Jan.  13,  1903,  editorial. 

63.  Bpt.  of  Central  Federated  Union,  1903. 


134      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

the  work  done  that  all  opposition  was  silenced  through  fear 
of  opposing  the  intelligent  public  opinion  that  had  been 
aroused.  *  '^* 

The  fight  for  and  against  the  legislation  of  1903  centered 
about  the  requirements  for  working  papers,  more  particularly 
the  documentary  proof  of  age.  The  outstanding  features  of 
the  child  labor  law  as  enacted,  were  the  following.^^ 

1.  No  child  under  fourteen  could  be  employed  in  any  fac- 
tory, and  none  under  sixteen  could  be  so  employed  without 
a  certificate  regularly  issued  by  the  Commissioner  of  Health 
or  the  executive  officer  of  the  board  or  department  of  health 
of  the  city,  town,  or  village  in  which  employment  was  sought. 

2.  The  applicant  was  required  to  submit:  a.  His  school 
record  showing  that  he  had  attended  a  public  school  or  its 
equivalent  for  at  least  130  days  during  the  year  preceding  his 
fourteenth  birthday,  that  he  had  received  instruction  in  the 
common  branches,  and  that  he  was  able  to  read  and  write 
simple  sentences  in  English,  b.  Documentary  proof  of  age  in 
the  form  of  an  attested  transcript  of  a  certificate  of  birth,  cer- 
tificate of  baptism,  or  other  religious  record,  or  in  case  such 
evidence  was  not  available,  and  only  then,  an  affidavit  of  par- 
ent or  guardian  to  the  effect  that  the  applicant  was  fourteen 
years  of  age.  The  affidavit  was  made  before  the  officer  issuing 
the  certificate,  and  no  fee  was  permitted. 

3.  The  issuing  officer  was  required  to  examine  the  child  as 
to  his  ability  to  read  and  write.  Before  issuing  the  certificate 
he  was  also  to  satisfy  himself  that  the  applicant  was  physically 
fit  to  perform  the  labor  proposed ;  in  doubtful  cases,  the  ques- 
tion of  physical  fitness  was  to  be  determined  by  a  physician 
of  the  board  of  health. 

Now  for  the  first  time  the  requirements  of  the  child  labor 
laws  and  the  compulsory  attendance  law  were  in  harmony. 
Heretofore,  there  had  been  no  adequate  basis  for  cooperation 
between  the  boards  of  education  throughout  the  state  and  the 
boards  of  health  charged  with  the  duty  of  issuing  working 
papers.  While  close  cooperation  remains  to  this  day  a  thing 
to  be  desired  rather  than  an  accomplished  fact,  the  laws  them- 
selves were  no  longer  in  conflict.  New  York  was  in  advance 
of  any  other  state  in  the  Union  at  the  time  in  requiring  of  the 


64.  Hon.  E.  R.  Finch,  quoted  in  letter  by  Robert  Hunter,  May  25,  1903. 
Files  N.  Y.  Child  Labor  Com. 

65.  Laivs  of  New  YorTc,  1903,  ch.  184.    It  is  interesting  to  compare  this  law 
with  that  of  1886,  ch.  409.    Discussion  supra,  pp.  123f . 


NEW  YORK  135 

worldng  child  not  only  evidence  of  a  minimum  age,  but  a 
definite  school-attendance  record.  Besides  these  data,  the  law 
required  that  the  child  possess  a  certain  ability  to  read  and 
write  as  exhibited  in  an  examination  to  be  given  by  the  officials 
issuing  working  papers.  It  must  be  admitted  that  this  pro- 
\'ision  was  not  generally  enforced,  but  it  proved  extremely  use- 
ful, where  employed,  in  checking  the  certificates  of  attendance 
issued  by  school  authorities,  docmnents  which,  singularly 
enough,  were  frequently  found  unreliable.®® 

Lest  the  following  somewhat  critical  pages  give  the  im- 
pression that  the  legislation  of  1903  was  so  poorly  enforced  as 
to  prove  of  little  value,  it  should  be  said  that  almost  immediate- 
ly the  officials  in  the  departments  of  Labor  and  Education  be- 
gan to  work  in  cooperation,®^  and  with  considerable  effective- 
ness. The  whole  number  of  parents  prosecuted  in  the  decade 
preceding  1903  had  been  2206;  more  than  half  that  number 
were  proceeded  against  in  1904  alone.®®  In  some  of  the  cities 
that  had  been  rather  notorious  offenders  against  both  the  labor 
and  the  attendance  law  there  was  an  activity  which  resulted  in 
greatly  increased  attendance,®*  while  in  the  state  at  large  the 
percentage  of  attendance  upon  enrollment  in  all  schools,  public 
and  private,  rose  from  71  per  cent  in  1902  to  76.1  per  cent  in 
1905.'^°  Indeed,  inadequate  as  some  of  this  legislation  soon 
proved  to  be,  its  real  importance  can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 
Of  that  portion  known  as  **The  Newsboys*  Law,*'  Jacob  Riis, 
whose  judgment  cannot  be  questioned,  and  whose  counsel  was 
sought  concerning  the  measure,  said,  '*If  it  was  the  last  service 
I  could  render  New  York,  I  could  think  of  nothing  of  greater 
importance.  *'^^ 

Almost  at  once  it  became  evident  that  the  battle  in  behalf 
of  children  had  not  been  completely  won  in  the  legislative 
campaip:n  of  1903.  Industrial  habits  of  long  standing  are  not 
easily   broken.    Parents    and    employers    found    methods    of 


66.  Seq.  p.  143f. 

67.  Bpt.  N,  Y.  Dpi.  of  Ed.,  1906,  p.  557. 

68.  Bpt.  N.  Y.  Dpt.  of  Ed.,  1905,  p.  74. 

69.  Allany  Times-Union,  Dec.  3,  1903. 

70.  :Rpt.  N.  Y.  Dpt.  of  Ed.,  1906,  p.  7. 

71.  Letter  approving  the  proposed  bill;  files  N.  Y.  Child  Labor  Com.,  1903. 


136      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

escaping  the  penalties  of  the  law,  and  young  children  continued 
to  turn  to  the  factory  and  shop  instead  of  the  school.  The 
situation  was  particularly  acute  in  New  York  City  because  of 
the  exceptional  conditions  prevailing  there,  but  even  '*up 
state"  boards  of  health  and  educational  authorities  often  fell 
far  short  of  doing  their  full  duty  in  the  administration  of  the 
laws."  Fortunately  the  constitutionality  of  the  documentary 
requirements  for  proof  of  age  was  settled  early  in  the  struggle 
for  enforcement."  Magistrates  would  not  apply  the  law  strict- 
ly, however,  not  infrequently  making  it  extremely  uncomfort- 
able for  the  officer  bringing  a  case  against  an  offending  parent. 
Apparently  they  did  not  believe  the  law  to  be  a  wise  one; 
they  therefore  refused  to  apply  it.  The  city  superintendent 
of  schools  had  taken  occasion  to  criticise  the  judges  for  failure 
to  fine  parents  for  keeping  their  children  out  of  school  to 
work,  and  in  correspondence  relative  to  the  matter,  one  of  the 
magistrates  wrote,  **  ...  I  have  no  hesitation  in  stating  that 
it  would  have  to  be  a  very  aggravated  case  before  I  should 
conclude  to  fine  a  poor  parent  five  dollars."^* 

The  effect  of  this  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  courts  brought 
the  law  into  contempt  and  made  its  enforcement  little  more 
than  a  farce.'^^  A  parent  haled  before  the  court  for  failure  to 
comply  with  the  compulsory  law  might  swear  that  the  child 
was  of  legal  age  and  the  judge  would  promptly  dismiss  the 
case.^^  An  employer  reported  for  violation  of  the  labor  law 
stood  less  than  one  chance  in  a  thousand  of  being  compelled 
to  suffer  the  legal  penalty."  While  this  state  of  affairs  must 
be  attributed  directly  to  indifferent,  short-sighted,  or  corrupt 
officials,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  every  state  seriously 
attempting  to  control  the  labor  of  children  has  experienced  a 
similar  period  of  conflict.    Administrative  and  judicial  officers 


72.  Rpt.  of  inspection  of  24  cities,  1904,  by  J.  K.  Paulding.     In  files  of 
N.  Y.  Child  Labor  Committee. 

73.  New  York  City  vs.  Chelsea  Jute  Mills,  March,  1904. 

74.  Letter  from  Judge  Lorenzo  Zeller,  Jan.  8,  1904;  files  N.  Y.  Ch.  Lab. 
Com. 

75.  Letter  District  Supt.  Stewart,  Oct.  3,  1905 ;  files  N.  Y.  Child  Lab.  Com. 

76.  Ept.  of  J.  K.  Paulding,  Apr.  17,  1905;  files  N.  Y.  Child  Labor  Com. 

77.  In  1903,  50,572  violations  were  reported  out  of  which  there  were  39 
convictions.    Supra,  p.  131. 


NEW  YORK  137 

have  ever  hesitated  to  come  between  the  parent  and  his  child. 
The  tradition  of  parental  right  over  his  offspring  has  been  ex- 
ceedingly persistent  and  has  yielded  only  gradually  to  the 
conception  of  social  welfare.    In  particular,  courts  have  hesitat- 
ed to  lay  a  fine  upon  a  parent  already  impoverished,  because 
he  permitted  his  child  to  add  to  the  family  income.     Slowly, 
and  even  as  yet  only  partially,  society  has  invented  methods 
of  relieving  the  necessitous  poor,  so  as  to  enable  children  to 
delay  entrance  upon  productive  employment  and  yet  retain 
a  full  measure  of  self  respect  and  independence.^^    It  was  be- 
lieved that  the  lack  of  zeal  on  the  part  of  local  officials  en- 
trusted with  the  administration  of  the  labor  laws  had  its  origin 
in  the  head  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  so  at  the  close  of 
Governor   Odell's   administration   in   1904,   the   philanthropic 
forces  interested  in  the  welfare  of  children  opened  a  determined 
fight  against  the  reappointment  of  John  McMackin  as  State 
Commissioner  of  Labor.    In  a  report  on  the  situation  made  to 
the  governor  elect,  Frank  W.  Higgins,  by  the  New  York  Child 
Labor  Committee,  Mr.  McMackin  was  subjected  to  scathing 
criticism.    It  was  held  that  the  manufacturers  were  becoming 
more  and  more  lawless  every  year;'®  that  though  more  than 
fifty  thousand  cases  of  violation  of  the  child  labor  laws  had 
been  reported  in  a  single  year,  there  had  been  but  a  few  pro- 
secutions with  fewer  than  two  score  convictions ;  that  the  Com- 
missioner of  Labor  was  vested  with   sufficient  authority  to 
cause  the  laws  to  be  enforced;  that  in  this  he  had  manifestly 
failed  and  had  forfeited  all  right  to  further  official  consider- 
ation.   Several  influential  papers  aligned  themselves  wdth  the 
Committee,  and  in  their  editorials  reveal  something  of  the  sit- 
uation.   The  following  are  illustrative: 

'*The  New  York  law  is  now  regarded  as  model  legislation 
on  this  subject,  (child  labor),  in  some  respects  superior  to  that 
of  Massachusetts.  So  far,  however,  have  some  of  its  provisions 
been  from  enforcement  that  the  facts  are  as  bad  as  they  are 


78.  In  1905  the  New  York  Child  Labor  Committee  provided  for  a  system  of 
scholarships  whereby  a  child  whose  labor  was  necessary  for  the  adequate 
support  of  the  family  might  receive  a  sum  approximately  equal  to  his 
normal  weekly  wage.  Cases  were  carefully  investigated,  and  it  was  found 
that  the  real  need  was  relatively  slight. 

79.  Bpt.  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com.,  1905,  p.  19. 


138      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

in  some  of  those  Southern  States  about  which  such  a  protest 
has  been  raised. . .  .  Children  of  four  and  five  have  been  allowed 
to  work  under  McMackin  and  one  of  six  has  been  found  work- 
ing until  nine  o^cloek  at  night.  In  one  factory  alone  there 
were  300  children  iinder  fourteen,  and  in  the  busy  season  this 
factory  is  open  until  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning."®^ 

In  the  same  tenor  from  the  pen  of  the  editor  of  the  New 
York  World: 

*' Governor  Higgins  can  hardly  ignore  the  volume  of  testi- 
mony offered  as  to  the  farcical  non-enforcement  of  the  child 
labor  laws  in  this  State. 

**The  evil  is  manifest.  When  tiny  children  are  kept  all  day 
in  rural  canning  works,  when  toilers  of  ten  years,  through  per- 
jury and  fraud,  are  *  sweated'  in  city  tailor  shops  and  fac- 
tories, when  breaches  of  the  law  are  not  punished,  even  though 
called  to  the  attention  of  the  inspectors,  not  only  do  the 
children  themselves  become  stunted  in  body  and  dwarfed  in 
mind,  but  an  insidious  and  dangerous  condition  is  set  up  to 
lower  the  earnings  of  heads  of  families."®^ 

And  from  the  Globe  on  the  same  date : 

**It  appears  that  of  the  54,000  cases  of  infractions  of  the 
child  labor  law  reported  to  State  Labor  Commissioner  Mc- 
Mackin last  year,  prosecutions  were  begun  in  but  thirteen. 
This  extraordinary  discrepancy  between  offense  and  attempts 
at  punishment  strongly  suggests  that  the  charges  brought 
against  Mr.  McMackin  by  the  Child  Labor  Commission  are 
true,  and  that  the  Commission's  demand  for  his  removal  from 
office  is  justified.  "*2 

The  State  Labor  Commissioner  sought  to  justify  his  leniency 
in  applying  the  laws  of  1903  on  the  ground  that  he  wished  to 
give  the  manufacturers  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with 
them.^^  But  since  the  essential  principles  of  this  legislation 
had  been  on  the  statute  books  since  1886,  not  much  weight 
was  to  be  attached  to  the  argument,  and  the  Child  Labor  Com- 
mittee came  off  victorious  in  its  first  big  fight  against  what 
appeared  to  be  political  manipulation  of  measures  intended  to 
protect  children,  Mr.  P.  T.  Sherman  being  made  Commissioner 
of  Labor. 


80.  Collier's  Weekly,  Dec.  24,  1904,  editorial. 

81.  New  YorTc  World,  Jan.  9,  1905,  editorial. 

82.  New  York  Glohe,  Jan.  9,  1905,  editorial. 

83.  N.  Y.  World,  Jan.  17,  1905. 


NEW  YORK  139 

Very  naturally,  the  provisions  of  the  child  labor  law  re- 
quiring documentary  evidence  in  proof  of  age  produced  some 
hardship.  Frequently  it  was  impossible  for  a  child's  par- 
ents to  present  the  necessary  papers,  and  the  employment 
certificate  was  refused.®*  The  law  provided  that  in  such  cases 
the  applicant  should  remain  in  school  until  sixteen,  but  an 
investigation  made  in  New  York  City  showed  that  when  once 
given  his  certificate  of  attendance  the  applicant  for  working 
papers  received  scant  attention  from  the  school  authorities. 
If  refused  the  coveted  papers  by  the  Board  of  Health,  he  would 
enter  some  employment  not  requiring  the  certificate,  then 
presently  find  his  way  into  a  factory  or  store,  there  to  remain, 
unless  discovered  by  an  inspector.®^  In  event  of  discovery,  the 
usual  penalty  was  rarely  more  severe  than  temporary  loss  of 
position,  magistrates  still  being  reluctant  to  levy  a  fine  either 
upon  parent  or  employer.®* 

It  was  found  also  that  the  rather  limited  range  of  evidence 
of  age  admitted  by  the  law  of  1903  was  working  a  genuine 
hardship  upon  many  children,  some  of  them  natives  of  the 
state  who,  due  to  defective  and  inadequate  vital  records,  were 
unable  to  procure  the  required  documents.  The  law  was, 
therefore,  amended  in  1905,  authorizing  boards  of  health  to 
accept  ** other  documentary  evidence"  in  addition  to  the  cer- 
tificate of  birth  or  religious  record.®^  At  the  same  session  the 
compulsory  attendance  law  was  so  amended  as  to  give  truant 
officers  the  right  to  enter  factories  or  other  establishments 
where  children  were  employed,  to  examine  certificates,  and 
to  determine  whether  or  not  the  conditions  of  the  law  had 
been  met.®®  Interference  with  such  an  officer  was  made  a 
misdemeanor. 

The  administration  of  the  child  labor  laws  continued  to  offer 


84.  Between  1903  and  1906  an  average  of  2,200  children  yearly,  all  fourteen 
years  of  age,  were  refused  working  papers  because  of  inability  to  produce 
the  proper  documents.  Bpt.  of  Sec.  Geo.  A.  Hall,  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com.,  Oct., 
1906. 

85.  Hid. 

86.  This  state  of  affairs  continued  until  1907,  when  children  between  four- 
teen and  sixteen  were  required  to  secure  the  employment  certificate  before 
leaving  school. 

87.  Laws  of  N.  F.,  1905,  ch.  518. 

88.  Laws  of  N.  Y.,  1905,  ch.  311. 


140      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

very  real  difficulties.  Boards  of  health  in  many  of  the  towns 
and  cities  frequently  regarded  their  duties  with  indifference. 
In  Manhattan  and  Brooklyn  the  Child  Labor  Committee  was 
able  to  stimulate  the  health  officers  and  to  give  very  practical 
assistance  by  maintaining  at  the  working  paper  offices  salaried 
agents,  interested  social  workers  who  rendered  friendly  aid 
of  an  expert  character,  and  who  were  often  able  to  advise 
applicants  for  employment  certificates  as  to  methods  of  pro- 
cedure in  securing  proper  evidences  of  age.  But  **up  state," 
where  the  aid  and  supervision  of  such  experts  was  wholly  lack- 
ing, officials  often  became  exceedingly  lax  in  their  methods. 
At  this  time  the  Department  of  Labor  had  no  supervisory 
authority  over  the  granting  of  employment  certificates.  More- 
over, the  Commissioner  and  his  inspectors  were  primarily  con- 
cerned in  dealing  with  those  who  were  employing  children  to 
whom  no  papers  of  any  kind  had  been  issued.®^ 

Every  advance,  however,  won  new  support  and  made  fur- 
ther progress  possible.  The  legislators  of  1907  took  action  for 
which  the  labor  organizations  had  been  struggling  for  many 
years,  limiting  to  eight  hours  the  working  day  of  factory  em- 
ployees under  sixteen  years  of  age.^**  Other  legislation  of 
particular  importance  to  working  children  was  the  following: 

Children  under  sixteen  applying  for  working  papers  were 
required  to  remain  in  school  until  such  papers  had  been 
granted.®^ 

In  cities  of  the  first  class,  the  certificate  of  an  approved 
physician  was  admitted  as  final  proof  of  age  in  case  other 
documentary  evidence  was  lacking.^^ 

School  attendance  officers  were  given  joint  power  with  the 
police  in  enforcing  the  newsboys'  law,  and  the  scope  of  this 
measure  was  considerably  extended.^^ 

The  following  year,  measures  of  still  greater  importance 
from  the  standpoint  of  enforcement  were  enacted;  the  in- 
spection of  mercantile  establishments  in  the  three  cities  of  the 


89.  Letter  of  Commissioner  Sherman,  Oct.  23,  1905;  files  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 

90.  Laws  of  1907,  ch.  507. 

91.  Ibid.,  ch.  585. 

92.  Ibid.,  ch.  291. 

93.  Ibid.,  ch.  588. 

94.  New  York,  Buffalo,  and  Rochester. 


NEW  YORK  141 

first  class^*  was  transferred  from  local  health  authorities,  at 
whose  hands  the  exploiters  of  child  labor  had  not  suffered,  to 
the  State  Department  of  Labor  f^  secondly,  in  these  cities  per- 
manent school  census  boards  were  established.^^  It  is  not  easy 
to  overemphasize  the  importance  of  this  advance  in  effective 
administration.  Its  far-reaching  effect  was  anticipated,  and 
the  action  was  actively  opposed  by  the  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers through  strong  lobbies  at  Albany.^^ 

The  rapid  advance  in  legislative  standards,  while  extremely 
gratifying  to  the  philanthropic  agencies  backing  the  movement, 
carried  a  certain  disadvantage.  Those  responsible  for  the  en- 
forcement of  the  laws  found  it  difficult  to  keep  up  with  chang- 
ing standards.  No  sooner  did  they  become  accustomed  to 
the  requirements  fixed  by  legislative  enactment  than  an  amend- 
ment would  require  revision  of  method,  producing  a  degree 
of  confusion  among  officials  extending,  no  doubt,  to  the  par- 
ents and  children  concerned. 

During  this  period  the  records  of  the  Education  Depart- 
ment show  a  steady  gain  in  the  rate  of  school  attendance,  yet 
it  was  recognized  that  many  children  were  not  in  school  at  all, 
while  others  were  very  irregular  in  attendance.®^  The  school 
authorities  felt  constantly  the  forces  drawing  children  into 
productive  employments.  The  Commissioner  of  Education 
says:  **0n  the  one  side,  the  manufacturer,  the  merchant,  the 
farmer,  seem  as  never  before  in  our  history  bent  on  employ- 
ing cheap  labor,  or  that  which  seems  cheap ; — on  the  other  hand 
is  the  parent  who  apparently  places  the  dollar  above  the  child, 
and  in  whose  mind  is  firmly  entrenched  the  old  common  law 
idea — that  the  parent  is  the  absolute  owTier  of  his  child  until 
it  is  of  age."^® 

The  Department  complained  that  the  method  of  appointing 
attendance  officers  by  the  town  boards  throughout  the  state 
was  anything  but  satisfactory,  many  of  these  officials  being 
*'ineff'ective  and  worthless.'*     Better  material  could  not  be 


95.  Laws  of  1908,  ch.  520.    Passed  at  extra  session. 

96.  Ibid.,  ch.  249. 

97.  Geo.  A.  Hall,  in  Charities  avd  Commons,  July  20,  1907,  p.  434. 

98.  Bpt.  Ed.  Dpt.,  1907,  p.  7. 

99.  Ibid.,  p.  10. 


142   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

secured  **  because  an  intelligent  and  courageous  man  will  not 
undertake  the  delicate  work  of  enforcing  the  law  for  a  mere 
pittance  of  from  ten  to  twenty-five  dollars  per  year,  which  is 
usually  the  amount  paid  by  town  boards. '*^^° 

The  judges,  in  many  cases,  remained  superior  to  the  law.^**^ 
The  attendance  officers  had  learned  to  bring  cases  before  Man- 
hattan magistrates  only  as  a  last  resort,  knowing  that  the  pro- 
ceedings would  be  likely  to  end  in  the  discharge  of  the  accused 
and,  perhaps,  in  the  reprimand  of  the  officer,^"^  -while  in  many 
other  parts  of  the  state  there  was  equal  reluctance  to  convict.^"^ 
But  perhaps  the  most  discouraging  element  in  the  situation  at 
this  time  was  the  attitude  of  indifference  assumed  by  a  number 
of  the  cities  of  the  state.  With  hundreds  of  children  out  of 
school,  many  of  them  illegally  employed,  not  a  single  arrest 
would  be  made,^^*  while  in  forty-five  other  cities  a  total  of 
1063  delinquent  parents  were  arrested,  of  whom  only  263,  or 

100.  Ibid. 

101.  One  judge  refused  to  consider  the  case  of  a  boy  less  than  fourteen 
found  at  work  because  in  his  opinion  any  boy  who  had  reached  the  required 
grade  in  school  should  be  allowed  to  go  to  work  regardless  of  his  age.  Of 
55  cases  brought  before  seven  magistrates,  29  coming  before  six  of  these 
officials  netted  four  fines ;  the  remaining  26,  of  precisely  the  same  character, 
were  brought  before  Judge  House,  recently  chosen  to  the  bench  and  deter- 
mined to  back  the  school  authorities,  and  all  but  two  resulted  in  convictions. 
Unpublished  report  of  investigation  made  in  1907  by  Eugene  E.  Agger; 
files  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 

102.  Out  of  912  cases  brought  in  the  school  year  1908-09  against  those  in 
parental  relations  for  violation  of  the  attendance  law  in  New  York  City, 
235  of  the  accused  were  fined,  15  were  imprisoned,  while  653,  or  71%  per 
cent,  were  discharged.  In  the  same  year,  2,504  violations  of  the  newsboys' 
law  were  reported,  239  arrests  were  made,  104  of  those  arrested  were  dis- 
charged, 9  were  fined,  12  were  committed  to  institutions,  114  were  given 
suspended  sentences.  New  YorTc  Globe,  Nov.  13,  1909;  from  Annual  Bpt. 
Pres.  Winthrop,  City  Board  of  Education, 

103.  The  Commissioner  of  Education  says:  **It  has  been  almost  impossible 
for  school  boards  and  superintendents  in  certain  cities  to  get  police  magis- 
trates to  punish  delinquent  parents  —  even  when  the  same  offender  has  been 
repeatedly  arraigned  for  violation  of  the  law.'*  He  cites  one  city  in  which 
98  parents  were  arrested  in  a  space  of  three  months,  with  abundant  evidence 
to  establish  their  guilt.  Two  of  them  were  fined  one  dollar  each ;  the  others 
were  dismissed.  Bpt.  Ed.  Dpt.,  1908,  p.  8.  See  also  Bpt.  Dpt.  of  Labor, 
1911,  Bureau  of  Merc.  Inspection,  p.  429. 

104.  Bpt.  Ed.  Dpt.,  1908,  p.  9.  The  cities  listed  as  reporting  no  arrests  or 
prosecutions  for  the  violation  of  the  attendance  laws  are  as  follows :  Albany, 
Auburn,  Binghamton,  Corning,  Cortland,  Elmira,  Gloversville,  Hornell, 
Ithaca,  Jamestown,  Johnstown,  Little  Falls,  Lockport,  Middleton,  New- 
burgh,  Ogdensburg,  Olean,  Oneida,  Plattsburg,  Poughkeepsie,  Eensselaer, 
Rome,  Syracuse,  Watertown. 


NEW  YORK  143 

slightly  more  than  twenty-five  per  cent,  were  fined,  and  36  were 
given  jail  sentences."'  About  this  time  New  York  City  was 
receiving  unwelcome  publicity  because  of  inadequate  enforce- 
ment of  state  and  municipal  laws,  but  the  records  show  that 
in  regard  to  the  protection  and  education  of  children  her 
record  was  far  better  than  that  reported  for  the  cities  in  the 
rest  of  the  state,  about  seventy-two  per  cent  of  all  convictions 
for  the  violation  of  the  attendance  and  child  labor  laws  being 
in  New  York  City  alone.^*^* 

It  should  be  recognized  clearly  that  no  single  group,  as  public 
ofScials,  employers,  or  short-sighted  parents,  may  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  non-enforcement  of  these  laws,  theoretically 
approved  almost  everywhere,  yet  so  frequently  ignored.  Even 
teachers,  principals,  and  superintendents  were  slow  in  yielding 
full  cooperation  in  carrying  out  the  measures.  For  example, 
in  1908  it  was  discovered  that  many  children  in  New  York 
City  were  at  work  on  certificates  of  schooling  alone.^"^  These 
children  had  claimed  their  record  of  attendance,  had  been  per- 
mitted to  leave  school,  but  had  been  held  up  by  the  Board  of 
Health  because  of  inability  to  meet  some  one  of  the  require- 
ments imposed  by  the  law.^°®  Here  the  principals  were  clearly 
at  fault,  as  under  the  law  of  1907  no  child  under  sixteen  might 
be  permitted  to  leave  school  until  his  working  papers  were 
completed.  A  reasonable  degree  of  cooperation  between  the 
schools  and  the  health  officials  would,  of  course,  have  resulted 
in  the  return  of  most  or  all  of  these  children  to  school. 

Singularly  enough,  the  Board  of  Health  was  constantly 
obliged  to  refuse  working  papers  to  children  on  the  ground  of 
illiteracy,  though  regularly  certified  by  principals  as  having 
met  the  schooling  requirements.  Just  why  the  school  author- 
ities should  have  continued  to  certify  children  who  were  al- 
most entirely  illiterate  has  never  been  explained.     In  1906, 


105.  Ibid. 

106.  Bpt.  Ed.  Dpi.,  1909,  p.  30. 

107.  In  the  following  pages  rather  extended  reference  will  be  made  to  law 
enforcement  in  New  York  City.  This  is  primarily  because  material  is 
accessible  here,  while  up  state,  except  in  a  few  instances,  it  is  either  un- 
reliable or  lacking.  This  city  is  hardly  typical,  as  manifestly  more  vigorous 
enforcement  was  attempted  than  in  other  parts  of  the  state. 

108.  Letter,  Miss  Jeanie  V.  Minor,  agent  of  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com.;  Sept.  4, 
1908;  files  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 


144      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

children  to  the  number  of  479,  regularly  certified  by  principals, 
were  found  unable  to  pass  the  reading  and  writing  tests, 
usually  simple  sentences  dictated  from  the  fourth  Reader.  The 
number  of  failures  continued  for  several  years  to  be  relatively 
large,  being  462  in  1908,  376  in  1910,  239  in  1912,  falling  to 
79  in  1915.  A  few  hundred  failures  out  of  several  thousand 
applicants  for  working  papers  may  seem  trifling,  but  that  there 
should  be  a  single  one  is  a  reflection  upon  those  in  charge  of 
issuing  the  school  record.^*^^  That  careless  certification  of 
children  was  quite  general  among  the  schools  is  evidenced  by 
an  analysis  of  the  reports  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1909, 
which  shows  that  applicants  from  129  public  schools  and  32 
parochial  schools  of  Manhattan  were  refused  working  papers 
on  demonstrated  inability  to  read  and  write.^^"  Further  light 
is  thrown  upon  the  situation  by  a  circular  letter  from  Superin- 
tendent William  H.  Maxwell,  dated  June  15,  1908,  addressed 
to  *' Principals  of  all  Public  and  Other  Schools,"  and  running 
in  part  as  follows: 

"Many  principals  have  issued  to  children  during  the  year 
school  record  certificates,  when  such  children  did  not  possess 
the  required  scholarship.  Others  have  knowingly  permitted 
children  to  apply  for  an  employment  certificate  at  the  office  of 
the  Board  of  Health  with  only  an  affidavit  of  a  parent  as 
evidence  of  the  date  of  birth.  ""^ 

The  correspondence  of  Associate  Superintendent  Edward  B. 
Shallow  with  the  Secretary  of  the  New  York  Child  Labor 
Committee  and  with  others  interested  in  law  enforcement 
locates  more  specifically  the  responsibility  for  failure.  Charged 
with  the  administration  of  the  attendance  laws,  he  was  in  closer 
touch  with  the  various  aspects  of  the  city's  problems  of  the 
working  child  than  was  any  other  single  official.  He  found  it 
necessary,  he  said,  to  reprove  some  of  the  oldest  and  best 
known  principals  for  failure  to  observe  the  regulations  relative 
to   working   papers.^^^    Some   had   apparently   found   it    im- 


109.  The  number  of  failures  dropped  to  two  figures  in  1914,  due,  no  doubt, 
to  the  legislation  of  1913  requiring  that  applicants  for  working  papers  must 
have  completed  the  first  six  years  of  the  elementary  school  course.  Laws  of 
New  YorTc,  1913,  ch.  144. 

110.  Files,  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 

111.  Ihid. 

112.  Letter,  Oct.  16,  1908 ;  files  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 


NEW  YORK  145 

possible  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  changes  in  the  laws  or 
even  to  follow  simple  directions  prepared  for  their  guidance. 
Certain  of  them  were  still  following  requirements  displaced  by 
the  amendments  of  1903.^^^  In  a  burst  of  impatience,  Mr. 
Shallow  writes,  *  *  Would  that  someone  might  point  out  the  way 
to  me,  to  make  all  these  people  understand  ordinary  English 
directions!""* 

Besides  making  clear  the  shortcomings  of  the  teaching  forces 
in  carrying  out  the  provisions  of  the  law,  Mr.  Shallow  shows 
in  his  correspondence  the  continued  failure  of  the  newsboys* 
law,  commended  so  highly  in  1903  by  Jacob  Riis.  As  late  as 
1909  he  reported  a  case  in  which  certain  newsboys  had  been 
arrested  for  violating  this  law  and  had  entered  pleas  of  guilty. 
The  magistrate  accepted  the  pleas,  promptly  suspended 
sentences,  and  criticized  the  officer  in  the  presence  of  the  boys, 
saying  he  had  no  right  to  make  the  arrests.^^^  In  another 
letter,  reporting  the  difficulties  in  handling  these  cases,  Mr. 
Shallow  noted  that  he  had  but  four  men  for  this  particular 
service,  and  these  were  obliged  to  work  in  pairs,  **  because 
when  a  man  working  alone  attempts  to  arrest  a  persistent 
violator,  he  is  usually  surrounded  by  a  mob  and  in  more  than 
one  instance,  the  boy  has  been  taken  away  from  the  officer  by 
the  unruly  crowd.  "^^® 

The  situation  in  this  unsettled  period  was  still  further  com- 
plicated by  the  lack  of  cooperation  between  the  school  and 
labor  officials.  The  factory  inspectors,  on  finding  children 
illegally  employed,  would  promptly  cause  their  discharge.  It 
was  no  part  of  their  duties  to  see  that  these  children  returned 
to  school,  and  few  of  them  would  do  so  voluntarily.  They 
would  either  loaf  about  the  streets  or  secure  employment  else- 
where, safe  in  the  latter  case  until  discovered  by  an  inspector, 
perhaps  six  months  or  a  year  later.  In  1909  it  had  been  agreed 
that  immediately  on  discharge  of  a  child  by  the  labor  author- 
ities, the  chief  attendance  officer  should  be  notified.  The  De- 
partment of  Labor  failed  to  carry  out  the  terms  of  the  agree- 


113.  Letter,  June  1,  1909;  files  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 

114.  Ihid. 

115.  Letter,  Oct.  25,  1909;  files  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 

116.  Letter,  Jan.  28,  1909 ;  files  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 


146      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

raent,  but  instead  permitted  the  names  of  discharged  children 
to  accumulate  for  a  month,  sending  them  to  the  attendance 
officers  in  lots  of  two  or  three  hundred,  too  late  to  be  of  great 
value  in  bringing  the  children  back  to  school.^^^ 

Notwithstanding  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  complete  en- 
forcement of  the  laws  for  the  protection  of  children,  progress 
was  continuous.  The  years  between  1909  and  1913  were  dis- 
tinctly years  of  consolidation.  Legislative  changes  were  not 
so  frequent  as  in  the  periods  immediately  preceding  and 
following,  those  made  being  intended  to  facilitate  enforcement 
of  laws  already  in  operation.  During  this  period  the  number 
of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  employed  in  factories 
increased  by  about  eighty  per  cent;  the  percentage  of  illegal 
employment,  so  far  as  ascertained,  remained  practically  the 
same,  slightly  less  than  eight  per  cent.^^®  In  1910,  when  the 
Department  of  Labor  took  over  the  inspection  of  mercantile 
establishmejits  in  first  class  cities,  more  than  half  the  children 
found  at  work  were  employed  contrary  to  law.  In  1913,  with 
an  increase  of  about  eleven  per  cent  in  the  number  employedj 
there  had  been  a  reduction  of  approximately  an  equal  per  cent 
in  illegal  employment."^  Progress  had  also  been  made  in  en- 
forcing the  attendance  law.  In  both  country  and  city,  parents 
were  beginning  to  realize  that  the  law  could  be  enforced.  In 
1911  legislative  authority  had  been  gained  for  a  more  adequate 
system  of  supervision  in  districts  outside  of  cities.  District 
superintendents  were  now  stimulated  and  aided  by  thirteen 
inspectors  from  the  State  Department.  These  inspectors  brought 
the  Department  into  close  touch  with  every  part  of  the  state, 
and  under  the  direction  of  the  chief  of  the  attendance  division, 
Honorable  James  D.  Sullivan,  the  attendance  laws  were  really 
functioning.  Funds  were  frequently  withheld  from  districts 
refusing  to  cooperate,"**  and  prosecutions  now  resulted  in  con- 

117.  Letter,  Mr.  Shallow  to  Mr.  HaU,  Dec.  22,  1910;  files  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com. 

118.  Bpt,  N.  r.  Com.  of  Lab.,  1913,  pp.  41-42.  18,764  children  between  14 
and  16  were  employed  in  factories  in  1913. 

119.  Ihid.,  p.  85. 

120.  Bpt.  Ed.  Dpt.,  1908,  p.  12;  1912,  p.  334;  1913,  p.  300.  While  a  few 
districts  are  thus  penalized  each  year,  this  power  is  exercised  only  after  all 
other  means  to  secure  attendance  have  failed. 


NEW  YORK  147 

viction  in  about  one  case  out  of  f our.^^^  Moreover,  the  parochial 
schools,  formerly  distinctly  suspicious  of  any  law  or  ruling 
which  touched  their  interests,  now  welcomed  the  assistance  and 
supervision  of  the  State  Department,  thus  marking  one  more 
advance  in  the  direction  of  unification  in  the  educational  activ- 
ities of  the  state. 

The  most  important  step  toward  more  efficient  enforcement 
of  attendance  laws  in  the  three  cities  of  the  first  class  was  the 
enactment  of  the  permanent  census  law  in  1908,^^^  a  measure 
which  passed  the  Assembly  without  a  dissenting  vote.^^^  The 
main  provisions  of  this  law  were: 

1.  A  census  board  composed  of  the  Mayor,  the  police  com- 
missioner, and  the  city  superintendent  of  schools. 

2.  An  initial  census  taken  under  the  direction  of  this  board 
by  the  police  and  amended  from  day  to  day  by  these  officers. 

3.  Any  person  in  parental  relations  to  a  child  of  school  age 
to  report  to  the  police  of  his  precinct  two  weeks  before  such 
child  reached  the  compulsory  school  age,  its  name,  residence, 
school  to  be  patronized,  together  with  other  data  necessary 
for  perfecting  an  individual  record.  In  case  of  removal  to 
another  precinct  or  to  any  part  of  the  same  precinct,  data  of 
a  similar  nature  to  be  recorded  at  the  police  station  at  once. 

The  initial  census  was  taken  in  Buffalo  and  Rochester  in 
October,  1909,  but  in  New  York  City  there  was  delay  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  law  was  quite  frankly  opposed  by  both  the 
police  commissioner  and  the  mayor.^24  Commissioner  Draper, 
an  earnest  advocate  of  the  permanent  census,  brought  such  a 
degree  of  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  hostile  members  of  the 
census  board  as  to  secure  action,  and  in  1910  the  enumeration 
was  put  under  way,  not  by  means  of  the  regular  police  force, 
as  the  law  had  contemplated,  but  by  special  police  detailed 
for  the  purpose.    It  must  be  said  that  this  law  was  never  fully 


121.  Hid.,  1914,  pp.  511,  611.  Nearly  3,000  prosecutions  a  year  were  now 
undertaken.  In  New  York  City  in  1911-12,  93  per  cent  of  the  parents 
brought  before  the  magistrates  for  violation  of  the  attendance  laws  were 
either  discharged  or  dismissed  with  a  reprimand.  Fifty-five  parents  were 
fined,  the  total  sum  being  $163.00. — Bpt.  of  Supt.  TV.  H.  Maxwell  to  the 
N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com.,  Dec.  20,  1912 ;  files  of  the  Com. 

122.  Supra,  p.  141. 

123.  Bpt.  Ed.  Dpt.,  1911,  p.  40. 

124.  First  An.  Bpt.  Director  of  Attendance,  New  York  City,  p.  9. 


148       SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

enforced  in  New  York  City.^^^  Police  Commissioner  Bingham 
gave  only  reluctant  cooperation,  and  his  successor,  Commission- 
er Waldo,  while  apparently  less  open  in  his  opposition, 
'*  showed  his  hostility  to  the  census  work  and  his  absolute  in- 
accessibility to  any  but  the  traditional  conceptions  of  police 
duty.  "^26 

Notwithstanding  the  handicap  under  which  the  permanent 
census  law  went  into  operation,  its  value  at  once  appeared  in 
its  early  results.  Even  before  its  machinery  was  perfected, 
the  police  census  showed  518  children  in  Rochester  unlawfully 
employed  and  out  of  school,  6,318  in  Buffalo  similarly  em- 
ployed and  illegally  absent  from  school,  and,  although  the 
census  in  New  York  City  was  very  unsatisfactory  and  certain- 
ly fell  short  of  revealing  the  true  situation,  it  disclosed  23,241 
cases  of  this  kind.^^^  Perhaps  no  more  convincing  testimony 
of  the  inadequacy  of  the  former  system  of  law  enforcement 
could  be  presented.  Machinery  for  the  administration  of  com- 
pulsory attendance  had  been  maintained  in  these  cities  since 
1895;  large  sums  had  been  expended  by  the  state  in  carrying 
out  the  requirements  of  child  labor  laws,  yet  the  first  drag- 
net thrown  out  by  the  new  census  boards  brought  in  30,077 
children  who  had  managed  to  escape  the  vigilance  of  the  in- 
spectors and  attendance  officers. 

But  in  the  rapidly  growing  city  of  New  York  a  permanent 
census  alone  could  do  little  more  than  call  general  attention 
to  a  situation  which  was  already  recognized  by  those  in  touch 
with  the  problems  of  industry  and  education.  Many  believed 
certain  departments  of  the  city  school  system  required  rather 
complete  reorganization.  In  the  fall  of  1910  the  Board  of 
Estimate  and  Apportionment  ordered  an  inquiry  into  the  or- 
ganization, equipment,  and  methods  of  the  Department  of 
Education.  An  extended  investigation  was  made,  in  the  course 
of  which  detailed  attention  was  given  to  the  problems  of  ir- 
regular attendance.  Conditions  revealed  were  sufficiently 
serious  to  warrant  recommending  a  change  in  the  methods  of 

125.  Ibid.,  p.  10.    The  defective  method  was  displaced  by  the  present  system 
in  1914. 

126.  Ibid. 

127.  Bpt.  Ed.  Dpt.,  1912,  p.  325. 


NEW  YORK  149 

enforcing  the  compulsory  law.^^®  The  final  outcome  was  such 
legislation  as  enabled  the  city  to  establish,  through  the  board 
of  education,  a  Bureau  of  Compulsory  Education,  School 
Census,  and  Child  Welfare,  this  organization  assuming  the 
duties  formerly  exercised  by  the  permanent  census  board,  and 
becoming  responsible  for  the  enforcement  of  the  compulsory 
education  law,  the  newsboys'  law,  the  school  census  law,  and 
for  child  welfare  activities  in  general.^^® 

The  work  of  the  Bureau  of  Attendance — its  short  legal  title 
— can  be  given  but  a  few  paragraphs  in  a  later  section.  It 
represents  an  advanced  step  in  centralization  and  coordination, 
and,  properly  supported,  should  become  highly  effective  in 
securing  school  attendance. 

The  same  general  dissatisfaction  with  methods  of  dealing 
with  children  which  led  to  the  New  York  School  Inquiry  was 
responsible  for  another  investigation  of  even  greater  import- 
ance. For  some  time  there  had  been  a  growing  demand  for 
a  closer  relationship  among  the  various  instruments  of  govern- 
ment concerned  in  the  administration  of  employment  and  edu- 
cation laws  throughout  the  state.  This  demand  was  accentuat- 
ed by  the  practices  of  two  industries  which  employed  many 
thousands  of  children  and  which  the  existing  regulations 
seemed  unable  to  reach,  the  up  state  canneries  and  the  city 
tenement  manufactories.  In  the  former,  in  rush  seasons 
children  were  employed  for  eighty  and  more  hours  a  week.^^" 
Though  the  peculiar  needs  of  the  canning  industry  had  been 
recognized  in  the  law,  these  establishments  seemed  unwilling 
to  accept  any  restrictions  whatever,  and  during  the  busy 
seasons  violation  was  the  rule.  The  courts  sympathized  with 
the  employers,  and  conviction  was  next  to  impossible.^^^  But 
even  more  serious  were  the  conditions  prevailing  in  city  tene- 
ments, particularly  in  New  York  City.  Here  more  than  forty 
kinds  of  manufacturing  were  carried  on  in  13,000  houses  under 
conditions   quite   beyond  the   control   of  the   Department   of 


128.  Beport  Committee  on  School  Inquiry,  p.  673  ff. 

129.  First  Beport  Bureau  of  Attendance,  pp.  15,  16. 

130.  There  is  at  least  one  authenticated  case  of  117%  hours  in  one  week; 
photograph  of  time  card  in  files  of  New  York  Child  Labor  Committee.  See 
also  Second  Beport  Investigation  Commission,  1913,  Vol.  I,  p.  136f. 

131.  Second  Beport  Factory  Investigation  Committee,  1913,  Vol.  II,  p.  769f. 


150      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Labor,  which  found  it  impossible  to  visit  these  places  more 
than  once  a  year.^^^  It  was  known  that  many  young  children 
were  employed  here,  though  there  were  no  adequate  data  as 
to  the  extent  of  illegal  labor.  Attempts  had  been  made  to 
secure  an  official  investigation,  but  vested  interests  had  succeed- 
ed in  blocking  the  measures  proposed.  But  on  March  25,  1911, 
occurred  a  disastrous  fire  in  the  factory  of  the  Triangle  Waist 
Company,  in  which  one  hundred  forty-five  employees,  mostly 
women  and  children,  lost  their  lives.  The  conviction  that  this 
unfortunate  affair  was  due  to  failure  to  comply  with  the  re- 
quirements of  the  factory  law  shocked  and  aroused  the  public, 
and  it  was  now  possible  to  secure  the  appointment  of  a  com- 
mission known  as  the  State  Factory  Investigating  Commission, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  inquire  into  the  conditions  under  which 
manufacturing  was  conducted,  with  special  regard  to  the 
health  and  safety  of  operatives,  in  order  that  remedial  legis- 
lation might  be  enacted.^^^ 

The  Commission  was  limited  at  first  to  an  inquiry  into  the 
conditions  under  which  manufacturing  was  carried  on  in  cities 
of  the  first  and  second  classes,  but  later  its  jurisdiction  was 
extended  to  include  both  manufacturing  and  mercantile  in- 
dustries throughout  the  state."*  A  vast  array  of  facts  was 
gathered  relating  to  safety,  health,  wages,  hours  of  employ- 
ment, and  legal  protection  of  employees ;  public  hearings  were 
held;  hundreds  of  witnesses  were  examined;  and  extensive 
personal  investigations  of  actual  working  conditions  were  made 
by  members  of  the  Commission,  by  expert  employees,  and  by 
representatives  of  philanthropic  organizations.^^^ 

The  investigation  of  the  conditions  under  which  children 
were  employed  revealed  little  that  was  not  already  known  by 
those  who  were  in  touch  with  the  industrial  situation  in  the 
state.  In  the  cannery  sheds  mere  infants  were  found  at  work."^ 
In  the  city  tenements  children  not  over  five  years  of  age  were 

132.  Preliminary  Beport  Factory  Investigation  Committee,  1912,  Vol.  I, 
p.  574. 

133.  Laws  of  1911,  ch.  561. 

134.  Laws  of  1912,  ch.  21.- 

135.  Fourth  Bpt.  Fac.  Inves.  Com.,  1915,  Vol.  I,  pp.  1-30;  Prelim.  Bpt., 
1912,  Vol.  I,  p.  25. 

136.  Bpt.  of  the  Commission,  1913,  Vol.  I,  p.  135ff. 


NEW  YORK  151 

employed,  usually  by  their  own  parents,  under  conditions  ex- 
tremely prejudicial  to  health,  and  in  open  violation  of  the 
law.^^^  It  was  found,  also,  that  many  children  who  had  been 
granted  employment  certificates  and  were  legally  at  work  were 
sickly  and  quite  unfit  to  perform  the  tasks  which  boards  of 
health  had  authorized  them  to  undertake.^^^  The  lack  of  central 
authority  in  administration  impressed  the  Commission.  Not 
only  was  there  no  uniform  policy  in  regard  to  the  health  re- 
quirements for  working  papers,  but  in  proof  of  age  and  in 
evidence  of  educational  attainment  the  interpretation  of  stand- 
ards varied  throughout  the  state.^^^  Those  intrusted  with  the 
execution  of  these  measures  were  often  found  to  be  ignorant 
of  their  content.  The  frequent  changes  of  the  preceding  years 
had  confused  the  officials,  no  central  authority  had  been  re- 
sponsible for  the  proper  publicity  and  dissemination  of  amend- 
ments, and  as  a  result  there  had  grown  up  great  variety  in 
forms,  and  methods  of  procedure.^*" 

The  Commission  became  convinced  that  the  labor  legislation 
of  New  York  had  been  based  upon  faulty  principles.  Here- 
tofore it  had  been  regarded  as  necessary  to  indicate  in  the  law 
itself  all  requirements  for  the  protection  of  health,  safety,  and 
morals  of  employees,  thus  giving  the  statute  a  rigidity  that 
made  adjustment  to  local  or  individual  needs  impossible.^*^  The 
Commission  now  proposed  such  a  reorganization  as  would  per- 
mit the  delegation  of  a  measure  of  power  to  a  responsible 
central  authority  which  might  make  special  rules  and  regula- 

137.  Ibid. 

138.  Ibid.,  p.  176,  The  law  now  provided  that  employment  certificates 
should  be  issued  to  children  physically  fit  to  engage  in  the  labor  proposed, 
but  fixed  no  standard  of  fitness  and  required  no  physical  examination, 
leaving  the  interpretation  of  this  requirement  to  local  boards  of  health.  As 
a  result  the  health  of  working  children  was  very  inadequately  safe-guarded. 
New  York  City  adopted  a  standard  of  height  and  weight,  and  subjected 
doubtful  cases  to  medical  examination,  but  in  general,  boards  of  health 
throughout  the  state  gave  little  heed  to  the  physical  condition  of  applicants 
for  working  papers.  In  1907,  while  23,013  applicants  were  granted  em- 
ployment certificates,  only  4  were  refused  for  physical  reasons.  In  1910, 
the  number  of  certificates  granted  was  56,351,  and  though  501  applicants 
failed  to  meet  the  physical  requirements,  this  was  less  than  one  per  cent  of 
the  total  number.    See  Prelim.  Bpt.  Fac.  Inv.  Com.,  p.  102. 

139.  Second  Bpt.  Fac.  Invest.  Com.,  1913,  Vol.  II,  p.  178f. 

140.  Ibid.,  p.  179. 

141.  Ibid.,  p.  28. 


152      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

tions  and  provide  for  their  enforcement,  basing  such  action 
on  certain  broad  legislation  fixing  minimum  and  maximum 
requirements.^*^ 

In  accordance  with  this  principle  the  Commission  proposed 
a  complete  reorganization  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  placing 
at  its  head  an  Industrial  Board  of  five,  composed  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Labor  and  four  members  appointed  by  the  gov- 
ernor. The  Commission  also  recommended  that  the  entire 
Labor  Code  be  rewritten.  In  addition  to  these  recommenda- 
tions, presented  in  the  form  of  bills,  and  enacted  into  law  in 
1915,  the  Commission,  at  the  end  of  each  year  of  its  service, 
proposed  numerous  bills  for  remedial  legislation,  which  were 
accepted  by  the  legislature  with  gratifying  unanimity.  The 
following  provisions  were  directed  to  the  further  control  of 
the  conditions  under  which  children  might  be  employed: 

1.  The  Department  of  Labor  was  given  power  to  supervise 
local  boards  of  health  in  the  issuance  of  working  papers;  to 
make  physical  examinations  through  its  own  medical  inspectors 
of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  at  work  in  factories, 
and  to  exclude  any  found  unfit,  cancelling  the  employment 
certificates  issued  by  boards  of  health ;  and  to  make  rules  and 
regulations  through  its  Industrial  Board  governing  the  em- 
ployment of  minors  under  eighteen  in  dangerous  occupations."^ 

2.  A  thorough  physical  examination  was  made  a  pre- 
requisite for  working  papers.^** 

3.  The  employment  of  children  under  fourteen  in  tenement 
house  manufactories  and  cannery  sheds  was  forbidden.^*^ 

4.  It  was  required  that  the  school  record  of  an  applicant 
for  an  employment  certificate  must  show  that  the  child  had 
completed  the  work  prescribed  for  the  first  six  years  of  the 
public  elementary  school  or  school  equivalent  thereto. ^*^ 

5.  The  newsboys'  law  was  strengthened,  the  minimum  age 
raised  to  twelve,  the  closing  hour  was  made  eight  p.  m.,  and 
the  responsibilities  of  parents  made  more  definite.^*^ 

6.  The  terms  ** factory,*'  ** mercantile  establishment,"  and 
** tenement  house''  were  so  clearly  defined  as  to  leave  no 
grounds  for  confusion  or  misinterpretation.^*® 


142.  Ihid.,  p.  29. 

143.  Laws  of  WIS,  ch.  144. 

144.  Laws  of  1912,  ch.  333. 

145.  Laws  of  WIS,  ch.  529. 

146.  Laws  of  WIS,  ch.  144. 

147.  Laws  of  WIS,  ch.  618. 

148.  Laws  of  WIS,  ch.  529;  Laws  of  1914,  ch.  512;  Laws  of  1915,  ch.  650. 


NEW  YORK  153 

By  the  legislation  of  1912  and  1913  the  most  serious  defects 
of  the  child  labor  laws  were  corrected.  Children  were  now 
required  to  remain  in  school  either  until  they  had  completed 
the  first  six  years  of  the  course  or  had  reached  the  age  of 
sixteen.  Only  those  physically  fit  for  labor,  as  evidenced  by 
a  careful  medical  examination,  could  secure  working  papers. 
For  the  first  time  local  boards  of  health  were  subjected  to  at 
least  a  slight  degree  of  state  supervision  in  the  issuance  of  em- 
ployment certificates.  But  more  important  than  any  of  these 
provisions  was  the  creation  of  the  Industrial  Board  vested 
with  power  to  administer  the  labor  laws  and  to  make  regula- 
tions, within  fixed  limits,  flexible  enough  to  serve  the  best  in- 
terests of  employers  and  employees  in  various  industries.  The 
authority  given  this  board  was  a  pledge  of  unity,  as  the 
creation  of  the  investigating  commission  had  been  a  demand 
for  efficiency.  A  new  era  in  state  protection  of  wage-earners  was 
at  hand.^*^  Cooperation  might  now  be  expected,  at  least  in  a 
measure,  to  take  the  place  of  class  struggle  and  political  align- 
ment for  and  against  industrial  measures,  since  it  had  been 
demonstrated  that  improvement  in  the  conditions  under  which 
the  employee  carries  forward  his  work  means  larger  profit  to 
the  employer.^^°  At  the  very  least,  the  idea  of  community  in- 
terest between  worker  and  employer  receives  some  recognition. 

The  program  of  the  Factory  Investigating  Commission  was 
an  exceedingly  ambitious  one.  That  it  was  able  to  bring  about 
such  radical  changes  both  in  laws  affecting  labor  and  in 
methods  of  administration  was  undoubtedly  due  not  so  much 
to  its  constitution,  admirable  as  it  was,  nor  to  a  suddenly 
awakened  sense  of  virtue  on  the  part  of  the  legislators,  as  to 
the  fact  that  at  this  period  there  was  a  general  movement, 
manifesting  itself  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  towards  a 
more  adequate  defense  of  both  adult  and  child  labor,  a  definite 


149.  Fourth  Bpt.  Fac.  Invest.  Com.,  1915,  Vol.  I,  p.  7. 

150.  Ibid.,  p.  73.  An  excellent  illustration  of  cooperation  between  the  labor 
and  school  authorities  is  found  in  the  juvenile  department  of  the  state  em- 
ployment bureau.  Pupils  who  have  secured  employment  certificates  may 
register  at  the  school  and  the  applications  may  be  transferred  to  the  em- 
ployment bureau  where  they  are  treated  exactly  as  are  personal  registra- 
tions. The  principal  or  superintendent  of  the  employment  bureau  and  the 
advisory  committee  on  juvenile  employment  cooperate  in  securing  suitable 
positions  for  the  children  who  must  leave  school.  Laws  of  1909,  ch.  31,  as 
amended  1914,  ch.  181. 


154   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

reaction  against  the  prevailing  half-hearted  methods  of 
protection.^*^^ 

Naturally  it  was  not  possible  so  to  organize  the  new  ad- 
ministrative machinery  as  to  exclude  all  men  not  willing  to 
sink  personal  and  political  interests.  Scarcely  had  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  begun  to  operate  under  the  law  of  1913,  when 
it  became  evident  that  selfish  forces  were  at  work.  Important 
posts  were  removed  from  the  civil  service  and  the  places  were 
filled  with  men  not  distinguished  for  their  training  or  fitness 
for  the  work  to  be  done.^^^  Prominent  citizens  protested  this 
action,  and  the  public  press  demanded  that  the  department  be 
kept  free  from  politics.^^^  On  the  further  recommendation  of 
the  Factory  Investigating  Commission,  the  Department  of 
Labor  was  again  reorganized  in  1915,  greatly  centralizing 
authority  and  responsibility,  bringing  many  important  boards 
and  bureaus  luider  a  single  Industrial  Commission.^^* 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  law  of  1913  required  children 
under  sixteen  to  complete  the  sixth  grade  of  the  elementary 
school  before  securing  working  papers.  Almost  at  once  agita- 
tion was  begun  to  advance  the  scholastic  requirements  still 
further.^^^  It  had  been  found  that  in  New  York  City  about 
sixty-five  per  cent  of  all  children  securing  working  papers  were 
under  fifteen  years  of  age  and  had  not  completed  the  elemen- 
tary school  course.^^®  The  Industrial  Commission  favored 
additional  schooling  for  such  children,  and  legislation  was 
secured  in  1916  requiring  that  those  between  fourteen  and 
fifteen  years  of  age  could  be  granted  employment  certificates 
only  in  case  they  had  completed  the  course  of  the  elementary 
school  or  its  equivalent.^^^ 

In  1916  and  1917  there  was  further  legislation  affecting  the 
employment  and  education  of  children,  some  of  it  constructive 
and  very  significant,  while  other  measures  were  designed  mere- 

151.  Fourteenth  An.  JRpt.,  N.  Y.  Com.  of  Labor,  p.  13. 

152.  N.  Y.  Globe,  Feb.  28,  1914,  editorial. 

153.  BrooTdyn  Eagle,  Dec.  12,  1914,  editorial. 

154.  Laws  of  1915,  ch.  674. 

155.  Minutes  N.  Y.  C.  L.  Com.,  Jan.  13,  1916  (unpublished). 

156.  Ibid. 

157.  Laws  of  1916,  ch.  465.  Did  not  become  effective  until  Feb.  1,  1917, 
leaving  nearly  a  year  for  adjustment. 


NEW  YORK  155 

ly  to  strengthen  laws  already  in  operation.  Of  the  latter  type 
was  a  law  laying  additional  restrictions  upon  occupations 
which  might  prove  injurious  to  health  or  morals,  aimed  speci- 
fically at  the  employment  of  children  in  making  moving  picture 
films  ;^^^  there  were  also  progressive  changes  in  the  regulations 
concerning  truants.^^® 

Another  measure  which  should  be  of  great  assistance  in  en- 
forcing school  attendance  is  one  creating  a  permanent  census 
bureau  in  every  city  in  the  state. ^^^  Such  bureaus  had  already 
been  established  in  the  three  cities  of  the  first  class,  New  York, 
Buffalo,  and  Rochester.  In  all  other  cities  the  school  board 
now  constitutes  a  census  board,  and  under  its  direction  the 
census  is  taken  and  amended  from  day  to  day.  There  is  some 
doubt  as  to  the  efficacy  of  the  census  as  now  administered  in 
this  state.  As  noted  in  a  later  paragraph,  it  is  not  kept  up  in 
New  York  City  as  the  law  contemplates,  nor  does  it  appear 
that  in  the  second  and  third  class  cities  full  use  is  thus  far 
made  of  this  important  instrument.^^^ 

In  constructive  legislation  there  were  two  measures  designed 
to  make  compulsory  throughout  the  state  a  complete  system  of 
military  and  physical  training.^^^  f^Q  fj^g^  law  created  a  state 
military  commission  and  required  that  all  boys  between  six- 
teen and  nineteen  not  exempted  by  the  commission,  be  given 
military  training,  not  aggregating  more  than  three  hours  per 
week  between  September  1  and  June  15  of  each  year.^®^  An 
amendment  of  the  year  following  made  it  possible  for  the  com- 
mission to  substitute  for  a  part  of  the  military  work,  such 


158.  Laws  of  1916,  ch.  278. 

159.  Laws  of  1917,  ch.  563. 

160.  Laws  of  1917,  ch.  567. 

161.  Director  Davis  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Attendance,  states  that  the 
census,  even  in  its  present  incomplete  form,  is  of  great  value  in  enforcing 
school  attendance. 

162.  Military  training,  Laws  of  1916,  ch.  566.  Physical  training,  Laws  of 
1916,  ch.  567. 

163.  This  appears  to  be  the  first  state  legislation  in  the  Union  for  compul- 
sory military  training.  Colonial  Massachusetts  established  such  training, 
however,  in  1645.  The  following  is  the  record:  *^It  is  therefore  ordered, 
yt  all  youth  within  this  jurisdiction,  from  ten  yeares  ould  to  ye  age  of 
sixteen  yeares  shalbe  instructed  by  some  one  of  ye  officers  of  ye  band,  or 
some  other  experienced  shouldier  whom  ye  chiefs  officer  shall  approve,  upon 
ye  usuall  training  dayes,  in  ye  exercise  of  armes,  as  small  guns,  half 
pikes,  bowes  &  arrows,  &c."    Bee.  Col.  Mass.,  Vol.  II,  p.  99. 


156   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

vocational  training  or  vocational  experience  as  might  prepare 
boys  ''for  service  useful  to  the  state  in  the  maintenance  of 
defense,  in  the  promotion  of  public  safety,  in  the  conservation 
and  development  of  the  state's  resources,  or  in  the  construction 
and  maintenance  of  public  improvements/'^®* 

The  second  law  prescribes  instruction  in  physical  training 
for  all  children  and  youth  above  eight  years  of  age  in  the 
elementary  and  secondary  schools,  both  public  and  private. 
The  courses  of  instruction  are  to  be  determined  by  the  regents 
of  the  University  after  conference  with  the  military  training 
commission,  and  may,  according  to  the  interpretation  of  that 
body,  include  medical  inspection,  talks  and  recitations  in 
hygiene,  supervised  recreation,  organized  play  and  a  great 
variety  of  other  activities,  as  well  as  the  usual  forms  of  gym- 
nastic exercises.^®^ 

An  elaborate  program  of  physical  training  has  been  worked 
out,  one  which  probably  cannot  be  fully  realized  for  some 
time.  Yet  it  is  expected  that  at  least  the  minimum  require- 
ments can  be  met,  and  that  each  child  in  the  schools  of  the 
state  will  be  reached  in  a  systematic  effort  to  insure  to  him 
sound  health,  physical  vigor,  self  control,  a  spirit  of  coopera- 
tion, and  habits  of  justice  and  fair  play.^®®  State  aid  in  sup- 
port of  physical  education  is  given  to  the  extent  of  one-half 
the  salary  of  the  teachers  engaged  in  it,  provided  that  the 
appropriation  for  no  one  teacher  shall  exceed  six  hundred 
dollars. 

These  measures  represent  a  very  advanced  step  in  com- 
pulsory education.  New  York  now  proposes  not  only  to  re- 
quire that  her  children  receive  such  intellectual  training  as 
will  enable  them  to  become  intelligent  members  of  their  com- 
munities, but  to  insist  that  they  be  given  such  physical  train- 
ing as  will  render  them  efficient  members  as  well.  No  other 
state  has  thus  far  matched  her  in  this  respect.^®^ 

Brief  consideration  must  be  given  to  the  compulsory  feat- 

164.  Laws  of  1917,  ch.  49. 

165.  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Bulletin  No.  631,  1917,  p.  10. 

166.  Ihid.,  p.  11. 

167.  War  spirit  was  doubtless  responsible  for  both  these  measures.  The 
military  program  has  not  been  developed.  The  legislature  now  in  session 
is  likely  to  limit  appropriations  for  physical  education. 


NEW  YORK  157 

ures  of  evening  and  continuation  schools.  The  evening  school 
has  never  become  an  important  element  in  New  York's  system 
of  compulsory  education.  Theoretically,  it  was  made  a  finish- 
ing school  for  working  boys  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  who 
had  not  completed  the  elementary  course,  when,  in  1910,  a  law 
was  enacted  requiring  all  such  boys  to  attend  an  evening  school 
for  at  least  six  hours  each  week  for  sixteen  weeks  annually.^®® 
The  measure  was  made  to  apply  to  first  and  second  class  cities 
only. 

Excellent  work  is  being  done  in  many  evening  schools 
throughout  the  state;  but  excepting  a  few  cities,  little  effort 
is  made  to  enforce  attendance.^®^  New  York  City  is  fairly 
typical.  The  law  was  unpopular  from  the  first,  both  with  the 
boys  and  with  the  school  authorities.^^*'  Some  effort  was  made 
to  enforce  it  but  without  satisfactory  results.  Registration  and 
average  attendance  declined  steadily,  until  in  1915  of  the 
22,000  boys  who,  under  the  law,  should  have  been  in  these 
schools^  fewer  than  twenty  per  cent  were  registered,  while  the 
average  attendance  was  but  nine  per  cent."^ 

Compulsory  features  were  not  early  to  appear  in  day  con- 
tinuation schools  in  this  state.  In  1911,  the  year  that  Wiscon- 
sin inaugurated  her  system  of  compulsory  continuation  schools. 
Dr.  Maxwell,  Superintendent  of  the  New  York  City  schools, 
announced  his  conviction  that  the  attempt  to  serve  the  needs 
of  children  in  industry  through  evening  schools  was  a  demon- 
strated failure.  He  recommended  that  day  continuation  schools 
be  established  and  that  employers  be  required  to  allow  each 
employee  under  nineteen  years  of  age  from  four  to  six  hours 
a  week  for  forty  weeks  each  year  to  attend  such  schools.^^^ 
In  1913  it  was  provided  by  law  that  when  a  board  of  education 
in  any  city  or  district  should  establish  part-time  or  continuation 
schools  it  might  compel  the  attendance  of  employed  children 
between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age  for  not  less  than 
four  nor  more  than  eight  hours  a  week  for  thirty-six  weeks 


168.  Laws  1910,  ch.  16. 

169.  U.  S.  Dpt.  of  Labor,  Children's  Bureau,  pub.  17,  1917,  pp.  61-62. 

170.  N.  Y.  C.  School  Eeport,  1912-13,  Evening  Schools,  p.  72. 

171.  N.  Y.  C.  School  Eeport,  1915-16,  Continuation  and  Fart  Time  Classes, 
p.  143. 

172.  Ihid.,  p.  146;  Report  of  Dr.  George  E.  Meyers. 


158   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

each  year,  provided  such  children  had  not  already  completed 
courses  equivalent  to  that  of  the  elementary  school.^^^ 

It  was  expected  that  boards  of  education  disapproving  of 
compulsory  attendance  upon  evening  schools  would  take  early 
advantage  of  the  Wilmot  law,  but,  outside  of  New  York  City, 
no  district  took  steps  to  put  it  in  operation.  In  this  city  the 
board  established  continuation  classes  in  two  schools  in  lower 
Manhattan  and  required  the  attendance  of  children  who  came 
within  the  terms  of  the  law,  who  were  living  or  employed  be- 
low Fourteenth  Street. 

Notable  progress  was  made  here  in  establishing  continuation 
classes  with  attendance  upon  a  voluntary  basis,  or  with  com- 
pulsion exercised  by  employers  rather  than  by  school  officials, 
a  considerable  number  of  the  business  houses  employing 
children  maintaining  classes  in  their  buildings  and  requiring 
attendance.  Instruction  in  such  classes  was  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  school  authorities. 

But  neither  evening  or  day  continuation  schools  on  a  volun- 
tary basis  touched  the  real  problem  of  the.  employment- 
certificate  child.  It  was  estimated  that  58,000  children  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age  were  at  work  at  a  given 
time  in  New  York  City  alone.  Of  these,  about  37,000  had  not 
completed  the  elementary  school.  The  proposal  of  the  Board 
of  Education  to  establish  day  continuation  schools  in  which 
the  needs  of  these  children  might  be  met  and  to  enforce  at- 
tendance upon  them  could  not  be  carried  out  owing  to  the 
lack  of  funds.^^*  Pressure  was  brought  to  bear  from  various 
sources,  and  in  1919  a  law  was  enacted  providing  for  com- 
pulsory continuation  or  part-time  schools  throughout  the 
state."* 

Under  the  terms  of  this  measure,  school  districts  having  a 
population  of  5000  or  over  are  obliged  to  maintain  continuation 
schools  or  classes  and  to  compel  the  attendance  of  all  minors 


173.  Laws  1913,  ch.  748;  the  ''Wilmot  Law." 

174.  New  York  City  School  Beport,  op.  cit.,  p.  148. 

175.  Laws  1919,  ch.  531.  The  continuation  school  law  of  1919  represents  a 
very  advanced  step  in  the  development  of  a  complete  system  of  compulsory 
schooling,  and  though  it  is  certain  to  be  modified  by  the  legislature  now  in 
session,  its  historical  importance  seems  to  warrant  a  fuller  statement  both 
of  it  and  the  interpretations  and  regulations  made  by  Regents  of  the 
University  than  is  here  possible. 


NEW  YORK  159 

between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen  who  are  not  in 
regular  attendance  upon  otJier  instruction  and  who  have  not 
completed  a  four-years*  secondary  course  approved  by  the 
Regents  of  the  University.  Those  regularly  employed  are  re- 
quired to  attend  for  at  least  four  hours  each  week ;  those  tem- 
porarily out  of  employment  must  attend  not  less  than  twenty 
hours  a  week.  The  Commissioner  of  Education  is  required  by 
the  law  to  make  a  survey  of  each  city  or  district  in  the  state 
in  order  to  determine  its  peculiar  needs;  in  this  survey  the 
Industrial  Commission  and  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture 
are  directed  to  cooperate.  The  local  board  of  education  is 
made  responsible  for  the  establishment  of  the  continuation 
school  and  for  carrying  out  all  the  provisions  of  the  law,  but 
it  is  required  to  appoint  an  advisory  board  of  five  members 
representing  the  local  trades,  industries  and  occupations, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  give  counsel  and  advice.  Generous  financial 
aid  is  given  by  the  state  to  be  applied  to  paying  the  salaries 
of  teachers  in  the  part-time  schools,  such  aid  being  supple- 
mented through  the  Smith-Hughes  funds. 

The  law  required  that  the  part-time  schools  be  put  in  opera- 
tion with  the  opening  of  the  school  year  in  September,  1920. 
This  measure  was  not  retroactive,  and  during  this  year  attend- 
ance is  compulsory  only  for  children  between  fourteen  and  six- 
teen years  of  age.  As  in  Massachusetts  a  district  failing  to 
establish  a  school  forfeits  a  portion  of  the  state  appropria- 
tions, this  forfeiture  being  turned  over  to  the  board  of  educa- 
tion of  the  offending  city  to  be  used  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
required  school.  Suitable  penalties  are  established  for  in- 
fraction of  the  law  by  parent,  child,  or  employer. 

According  to  the  records  available  in  the  office  of  the  Divi- 
sion of  Vocational  and  Extension  Education  at  Albany,  con- 
tinuation classes  have  been  organized  in  103  cities  and  dis- 
tricts with  an  attendance  of  15,972.^^*  A  ruling  of  the 
Regents  permits  local  authorities  to  hold  continuation 
classes  on  Saturday  forenoons,  and  it  is  estimated  that  about 
one-fifth  of  the  schools  have  all  their  work  at  this  time.  There 
are  some  distinct  advantages  in  this  plan.     Many  industries 


176.  The  enrollment  ranges  from  a  single  pupil  in  Huntington  to  8,000  in 
New  York  City. 


160      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

provide  for  a  half-holiday  on  Saturday  afternoon.  In  such 
ease  it  does  not  disarrange  matters  seriously  to  relieve  minors 
for  the  entire  day  each  week.  Then,  as  a  more  important 
element,  school  plants,  already  crowded,  sometimes  find  it  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  to  provide  suitable  quarters  for  the  con- 
tinuation classes,  the  result  being  that  these  children  who  need 
every  possible  means  of  encouragement  find  themselves  in 
buildings  and  surroundings  quite  the  reverse  of  inspiring.  By 
conducting  this  work  on  Saturday  morning  the  best  that  the 
plant  affords  may  be  utilized.  It  is  too  early  to  discuss  the 
enforcement  of  the  continuation  school  law.  In  the  year  1920 
working  papers  to  the  number  of  74,686  were  issued  in  this 
state  to  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age.^'"'' 
Since  only  15,972  children  of  corresponding  ages  are  registered 
in  the  continuation  schools  this  year,  it  seems  probable  that 
many  children  are  being  deprived  of  the  schooling  intended 
by  the  law  through  inadequate  enforcement.^^^ 

The  friends  of  education,  in  preparing  the  continuation 
school  law,  apparently  went  further  than  the  present  temper 
of  the  people  warrants.  Yet  even  with  the  modifications  con- 
templated, New  York  will  have  a  system  of  compulsory  schools 
which,  properly  administered,  will  keep  all  her  children  under 
educational  influences  until  they  are  sixteen  years  of  age.^^^ 

The  features  of  the  compulsory  attendance  and  child  labor 
laws  now  in  operation  and  most  important  from  the  viewpoint 
of  this  study  are  here  briefly  summarized: 

1.  Every  child  of  compulsory  school  age  and  in  proper 
mental  and  physical  condition  shall  attend  school  for  the  full 
session,  at  least  180  days  annually,  as  follows: 

177.  Manuscript  record,  office  of  Industrial  Commissioner. 

178.  The  writer  visited  the  schools  in  Albany  and  Troy  and  spent  several  days 
in  studying  the  situation  in  New  York  City.  The  difficulties  in  connection 
with  the  enforcement  of  the  measure  in  the  latter  place  are  very  great, 
and  can  only  gradually  be  overcome.  In  the  smaller  cities,  enforcement  is 
largely  a  question  of  cooperation  between  the  schools  and  the  industrial 
forces.  Some  of  the  details  of  the  law,  for  example,  the  report  by  the 
employer  in  case  a  child  stops  work,  are  not  carried  out,  but  a  sincere 
attempt  is  made,  apparently  with  a  fair  degree  of  success,  to  keep  employed 
children  in  school. 

179.  It  is  expected  that  compulsory  attendance  upon  continuation  classes 
will  be  required  only  of  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen,  and  that  no 
school  will  be  maintained  unless  there  are  at  least  fifty  minors  who  should 
attend. 


NEW  YORK  161 

a.  In  cities  and  districts  of  5000  or  more  inhabitants  and 
employing  a  superintendent,  between  the  ages  of  seven  and 
fourteen;   between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  unless 
possessing  an  employment  certificate  and  regularly  employed. 

b.  In  all  other  districts,  precisely  as  above,  except  that  the 
compulsory  period  begins  at  eight  instead  of  seven. 

c.  No  child  who  has  not  completed  the  elementary  school 
course  or  its  equivalent  can  secure  an  employment  certificate 
prior  to  his  fifteenth  birthday;  in  many  cases,  therefore,  the 
minimum  lea\dng  age  is  fifteen. 

d.  Special  educational  opportunities  for  children  who  are 
retarded  or  who  are  defective  mentally  or  physically. 

e.  Cities  or  districts  having  a  population  of  5000  or  more 
must  maintain  continuation  or  part-time  classes  and  require 
the  attendance  during  thirty-six  weeks,  not  less  than  four 
hours  nor  more  than  eight  hours  each  week,  of  all  regularly 
employed  minors  under  eighteen,  not  graduates  of  high  school. 
All  such  minors  not  regularly  employed  and  not  in  any  other 
school  are  required  to  attend  not  less  than  twenty  hours  per 
week. 

f.  The  board  of  education  in  all  cities  of  the  state  except 
those  of  the  first  class  constitutes  a  census  board,  and  under 
its  direction  the  census  is  to  be  taken  and  amended  from  day 
to  day  by  attendance  officers  and  special  census  enumerators. 

2.  Enforcement  of  attendance  is  in  the  hands  of  local  school 
authorities  and  is  administered  through  attendance  officers, 
with  whom  the  Compulsory  Attendance  Division  of  the  State 
Department  of  Education  cooperates. 

3.  The  penalty  upon  the  parent  whose  child  does  not  attend 
upon  instruction  as  required  is,  for  the  first  offense,  a  fine 
not  exceeding  five  dollars  or  imprisonment  for  five  days;  for 
each  subsequent  offense  the  fine  may  reach  a  maximum  of 
fifty  dollars  and  imprisonment  may  be  extended  to  thirty  days. 
Special  penalties  are  fixed  for  the  violation  of  the  continuation 
school  law. 

4.  Employment  of  children  is  restricted  as  follows: 

a.  No  child  under  fourteen  may  be  employed  in  any  occupa- 
tion during  any  part  of  the  time  the  public  schools  are  in 
session. 

b.  No  child  under  fourteen  may  be  employed  at  any  time 
in  a  factory,  mill,  mercantile  establishment,  business  or  tele- 
graph office,  rest5.urant,  hotel,  apartment  house,  or  in  the  dis- 
tribution or  transmission  of  merchandise  or  messages. 

(1)  But  boys  over  the  age  of  twelve  years  may  be  em- 
ployed in  gathering  produce,  for  not  more  than  six  hours  in 
one  day,  subject  to  the  requirements  of  the  education  law,  and 


162      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

farmers'  children  may  engage  in  farm  work  for  their  parents 
when  schools  are  not  in  session. 

(2)  In  cities  of  the  first,  second  and  third  classes  boys  over 
twelve  may,  under  certain  restrictions,  sell  newspapers  and 
magazines  in  the  streets  or  other  public  places. 

c.  In  cities  of  5000  or  more  children  between  fourteen  and 
sixteen  may  not  be  employed  in  any  occupation  unless  in 
possession  of  an  employment  certificate.  In  school  districts 
of  less  population  they  may  be  employed  at  home  or  in  other 
than  the  forbidden  occupations  if  in  possession  of  a  school 
record  certificate. 

d.  Children  under  sixteen  may  not  be  employed  at  night, 
or  for  more  than  eight  hours  a  day  in  factories,  or  for  more 
than  nine  hours  a  day  in  mercantile  and  other  regulated  in- 
dustries. In  no  case  is  employment  to  be  for  more  than  six 
days  a  week. 

5.  Employment  certificates  are  issued  by  local  boards  of 
health  on  application  of  the  child's  parent  or  custodian  when 
the  following  conditions  have  been  met: 

a.  Documentary  evidence  of  age  to  be  presented. 

b.  If  the  child  is  betv/een  fourteen  and  fifteen,  he  must 
present  a  school  record  certificate  and  a  certificate  of  com- 
pletion of  the  elementary  school  course.  If  he  is  between 
fifteen  and  sixteen  he  must  present  a  school  record  certificate 
showing  that  he  has  completed  at  least  six  years  of  the  ele- 
mentary school  course. 

c.  Physical  fitness  as  determined  by  examination. 

d.  Ability  to  read  and  legibly  write  simple  sentences  in  the 
English  language,  determined  by  examination. 

6.  School  record  certificates  are  issued  as  follows: 

a.  In  cities  of  the  first  class  by  the  principal  or  chief  ex- 
ecutive of  the  school. 

b.  In  other  cities  and  districts  having  a  population  of  5000 
or  more,  by  the  superintendent  of  schools. 

c.  In  all  other  districts,  by  the  principal  teacher  of  the 
public  school. 

7.  Enforcement  of  the  child  labor  laws  is  primarily  in  the 
hands  of  inspectors  of  the  State  Industrial  Commission,  but  in 
cities  other  than  those  of  the  first  and  second  classes,  having 
3000  or  more  inhabitants,  the  mercantile  law  is  enforced  by 
local  boards  of  health.  In  villages  of  less  than  3000  no  defi- 
nite provision  is  made  for  enforcement. 

8.  Parents  or  employers  violating  the  labor  provisions  of 
the  attendance  law  are  subject,  for  the  first  offense,  to  a  fine 
of  not  less  than  twenty  nor  more  than  fifty  dollars;  for  each 
subsequent  offense,  a  fine  of  not  less  than  fifty  nor  more  than 
two  hundred  dollars.     For  making  false  statements  in  any 


NEW  YORK  163 

affidavit,  record,  or  certificate,  the  penalty  is,  for  the  first  of- 
fense, a  fine  as  above;  for  a  second  offense,  a  fine  of  not  less 
than  fifty  nor  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  or  im- 
prisonment for  not  more  than  thirty  days,  or  both  fine  and  im- 
prisonment; for  any  subsequent  violation,  a  fine  of  not  less 
than  two  hundred  fifty  dollars,  or  imprisonment  not  to  exceed 
sixty  days,  or  both. 

Enforcement  of  the  child  labor  and  attendance  laws  has 
reached  a  relatively  high  degree  of  effectiveness  in  the  state 
of  New  York.  In  New  York  City,  under  the  Bureau  of  Attend- 
ance established  in  1914,  an  elaborate  organization  for  the 
administration  of  attendance  regulations  has  been  developed. 
There  is  an  apparent  lack  of  cooperation  on  the  part  of  the 
officials  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  the  child  labor  laws, 
as  has  always  been  the  case  in  this  state,  but  with  the  per- 
fection of  its  follow-up  system  and  a  census  properly  amended 
from  day  to  day,  the  bureau  should  be  able  to  keep  in  touch 
with  the  child  from  the  moment  he  is  of  school  age  until  the 
statutes  no  longer  require  his  attendance  at  school  or  restrict 
his  employment.  Each  day  the  Department  of  Health  sends 
to  the  Attendance  Bureau  the  names  of  all  children  to  whom 
employment  certificates  have  been  issued.  It  then  becomes 
the  duty  of  the  bureau  to  see  that  such  children  are  either  at 
work  or  in  school. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  record  of  attendance  in  New  York 
City  is  satisfactory.  There  has  been  a  serious  falling  off  in 
the  percentage  of  attendance  based  on  net  enrollment  within 
the  last  three  years.^^°  This  can  be  accounted  for  in  part  by 
serious  epidemics,  including  infantile  paralysis  and  Spanish 
influenza,  which  have  swept  over  the  city,  in  part  by  the  coal 
famine,  by  a  shortage  in  teachers  and  by  lack  of  housing 
facilities.^^^  Other  disorganizing  elements  doubtless  enter  in- 
to the  situation,  which  is  an  exceeding  complex  one. 

The  operation  of  the  permanent  census  law  has  been  a  dis- 
appointment to  friends  of  the  measure  w^ho  saw  in  it  the  pos- 
sibilities of  a  perfected  system  of  child  accounting.     When 


180.  The  percentage  of  attendance  upon  enrollment  in  1906  was  89.5;  ten 
years  later  it  was  precisely  the  same.  First  Beport  Bureau  of  Aattendance, 
p.  58.  According  to  unpublished  data,  it  dropped  to  77.8  in  1919,  reaching 
78  in  1920. 

181.  See  Second  Beport,  Bureau  of  Attendance,  p.  21. 


164      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

first  enacted  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  its  enemies.^^^  Later  its 
execution  was  entrusted  to  the  newly  created  Bureau  of  At- 
tendance, whose  officers  clearly  realized  the  importance  of  this 
instrument  in  the  successful  accomplishment  of  their  task.  The 
initial  cost  of  an  accurate  census  in  a  large  city  is  great  and 
the  amount  of  labor  involved  is  quite  beyond  the  realization 
of  the  layman.  After  it  has  been  taken  the  census  rapidly 
loses  its  value  unless  kept  up  with  absolute  fidelity.  This  re- 
quires faithful,  constant  service  and  considerable  financial  out- 
lay. The  Board  of  Education  has  not  been  generous  in  its  ask- 
ings in  support  of  the  census  and  the  Board  of  Estimate  has 
declined  to  appropriate  even  that  which  has  seemed  to  the 
educational  authorities  absolutely  essential.  As  a  consequence 
the  census  has  not  been  kept  up  and  several  thousand  children 
are  reported  *^not  found.  "^^^ 

The  Bureau  of  Attendance  is  apparently  securing  a  higher 
degree  of  cooperation  from  teachers  and  principals  than  they 
gave  in  the  troubled  days  of  Associate  Superintendent  Shal- 
low,^^*  yet  the  conditions  which  perplexed  and  irritated  the 
administrative  officers  a  decade  ago  have  not  entirely  been 
overcome.^^^  Relations  with  the  courts  have  improved  within 
recent  years.  Formerly,  parents  and  children  violating  the 
attendance  laws  were  taken  before  the  magistrates  of  the 
police  courts,  the  results  usually  being  most  unfortunate  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  enforcing  officers.^^®  Later,  cases  in 
which  children  were  involved  were  heard  in  the  Domestic 
Relations  Court  where  the  judges,  while  still  reluctant  to 
penalize  the  offending  parents,  were  interested  in  the  work  of 
the  Bureau  and  gave  its  cases  sympathetic  hearings.^^^  In  the 
year  1916  the  Municipal  Term  Court  was  organized  as  a  court 
before  which  might  be  brought  all  cases  in  which  a  city  de- 
partment or  bureau  was  the  complainant,  and  except  in  Brookr 


182.  Supra,  p.  148. 

183.  Second  Beport,  Bureau  of  Attendance,  pp.  92,  93,  94,  268. 

184.  Supra,  p.  144. 

185.  First  Beport,  Bureau  of  Attendance,  p.  45;  Second  Beport,  p.  19. 

186.  Supra,  pp.  142,  145. 

187.  First  Beport,  Bureau  of  Attendance,  p.  120.  The  records  show  that 
only  eight  per  cent  of  the  cases  brought  against  parents  resulted  in  con- 
viction. 


NEW  YORK 


165 


lyn  all  prosecutions  for  violations  of  the  attendance  laws  have 
since  been  assigned  to  this  court. 

Other  elements  remaining  fairly  constant,  the  number  of 
prosecutions  indicate  the  vigor  with  which  a  law  is  enforced. 
It  is  significant  that  since  the  creation  of  the  Bureau  of  At- 
tendance the  number  of  prosecutions  for  violation  of  the  law 
has  risen  steadily.^««  The  following  diagram  presents  in 
graphical  form  the  record  of  prosecutions  over  a  score  of  years. 


50p 

^ 

"■" 

— 

"■■ 

~ 

~ 

/ 

i 

\ 

i 

t 

\l 

. 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

I 

1 

/ 

\ 

/ 

/ 

> 

^ 

J 

1 

\ 

/ 

f 

^ 

/ 

N 

o      . 

\r 

I  i  i  i  §  I 


s?      5       »      s 
2       2      §      a 


Diagram  1.  Ratio  of  prosecutions  for  violation  of  attendance  laws 
in  New  York  City  to  net  enrollment  in  public  day  schools.  For 
convenience  the  number  of  prosecutions  is  indicated  in  tenths  per 
thousand  of  enrollment.  For  example,  in  1906  there  was  one  prose- 
cution for  each  one  thousand  of  the  net  enrollment.  The  enrollment 
in  parochial  schools  —  nearly  one-seventh  of  the  grand  total  —  is 
not  included.  It  is  probable  that  its  inclusion  could  not  greatly 
affect  the  curve. 


The  Attendance  Bureau  conducts  a  court  of  its  own  before 
which  truant  children  and  others  who  for  various  reasons  have 


188.  Second  Beport,  Bureau  of  Attendance,  pp.  25-28.  In  1914,  the  last 
year  under  the  former  method,  there  were  956  prosecutions;  in  the  year 
ending  with  July,  1920,  there  were  4,006. 


166      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

been  absent  from  school  are  brought,  together  with  their 
parents,  for  hearings.  There  are  many  thousands  of  such  cases 
annually.  The  cause  of  absence  is  sought,  medical  attention 
is  given  when  necessary,  the  duty  of  regular  attendance  is 
painstakingly  explained  to  parents  who  very  frequently  can 
speak  no  English,  and  only  in  exceptional  cases  is  resort  had 
to  the  regular  courts.^^^  As  one  result  of  this  preliminary 
hearing  and  the  careful  sifting  of  cases,  charges  finally 
brought  against  parents  or  incorrigible  children  are  usually 
sustained. 

In  the  state  as  a  whole  the  effectiveness  of  enforcement 
varies,  as  might  be  expected  in  any  system  of  administration 
in  which  ten  thousand  or  more  local  centers  must  be  depended 
upon  to  carry  out  the  laws.  Various  factors  in  addition  to  the 
multiplicity  of  officials  contribute  to  lack  of  uniformity  in  re- 
sults, among  them  being  the  complexity  of  the  laws  themselves, 
which,  in  the  process  of  their  evolution,  have  grown  exceeding- 
ly intricate  and  unnecessarily  confusing. ^^"^  Frequent  changes 
have  made  it  difficult  for  untrained  officials  to  know  just  what 
they  are  legally  required  to  do;  even  those  who  should  be 
reasonably  expert  stumble  hopelessly  over  some  of  their 
duties.^^i 

It  seems  clear,  also,  that  many  of  those  whose  duty  it  is  to 
enforce  the  laws  are  not  in  sufficient  sympathy  with  them  to 
give  the  cooperation  absolutely  essential  to  efficiency.  This  is 
true  not  only  of  judges  who  place  themselves  superior  to  the 
law  but  of  officials  who  ignore  some  of  its  simple  and  definite 
provisions.^^2  There  can  be  no  doubt  also  that  enforcement 
will  remain  in  a  more  or  less  confused  state  until  central 
authority  directs  more  closely  the  administration  of  employ- 
ment certificates.  Apparently  sufficient  power  is  already  lodged 
in  the  Industrial  Commission,  but  thus  far  supervision  of  this 


189.  Ibid.,  pp.  28-29.  One  who  spends  an  afternoon  in  this  informal  court 
gains  two  very  definite  impressions:  first,  that  the  officers  are  seeking  to 
secure  the  willing  and  intelligent  cooperation  of  both  delinquent  children 
and  their  parents;  second,  that  the  problem  of  Americanization  in  this  city 
is,  in  no  small  degree,  a  problem  of  the  mastery  of  the  English  language. 

190.  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Labor,  Children's  Bureau,  Pub.  No.  17,  1917,  p.  111. 

191.  Supra,  p.  151. 

192.  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Labor,  Children's  Bureau,  op.  cit.,  pp.  93,  99,  104. 


NEW  YORK  167 

important  preliminary  to  the  emplojinent  of  children  has  been 
but  nominal. 

The  laws  themselves,  besides  being  cumbersome,  fail  as  yet 
to  include  certain  features  which  are  necessary  for  the  most 
efficient  administration.^^^  For  example,  an  employment  cer- 
tificate, once  issued,  becomes  the  property  of  the  child.  He 
may  present  it  to  an  employer  and  go  to  work,  or  he  may  loaf 
on  the  streets  with  it  in  his  pocket.  If  after  a  period  of  em- 
ployment he  stops  work,  he  may  claim  his  certificate  and  either 
present  it  elsewhere  or  remain  idle  as  he  chooses ;  only  the  un- 
guided  vigilance  of  the  attendance  officer  -vvill  return  him  to 
school  unless  he  elects  to  resume  his  studies.^®*  Again  some 
sections  of  the  child  labor  laws  are  so  drawn  as  to  render  en- 
forcement exceedingly  difficult.  The  mercantile  law,  except 
as  it  applies  to  cities  of  the  first  and  second  classes,  is  an 
illustration.^^^ 

But  when  it  is  recalled  that  legislation  of  enforceable 
character  for  the  protection  and  schooling  of  children  in  this 
state  is  largely  the  product  of  the  present  century,  the  relative- 
ly high  standards  attained  both  in  the  laws  and  their  ad- 
ministration become  significant.  More  than  one  hundred  fifty 
inspectors,  representing  the  Industrial  Commission,  have  practi- 
cally eliminated  illegal  child  labor  from  the  larger  factories, 
and  have  greatly  restricted  it  in  mercantile  establishments  in 
the  larger  cities.  The  state  program  of  compulsory  education 
is  as  promising  as  that  in  any  other  state  in  the  Union.  It 
would  seem,  also,  that  in  no  one  of  the  larger  states  has  the 


193.  That  the  local  boards  of  health  should  be  required  to  issue  working 
papers  is  an  illustration  of  inertia.  It  has  long  been  recognized  that  this 
practice,  set  up  in  1896,  was  an  unwarranted  one.  The  boards  of  health 
are  not  interested  except  so  far  as  the  physical  condition  of  the  children  is 
concerned,  they  have  no  contact  with  the  industry  into  which  the  applicant 
is  going  and  they  never  hear  of  the  child,  officially,  after  he  leaves  the  ex- 
amination room,  unless  he  returns  for  another  certificate.  The  examination 
as  to  literacy  is  still  required  by  law,  but  probably  rarely  given.  One  head 
of  a  city  health  department,  on  being  interviewed,  stated  that  he  always 
gave  the  examination,  or  had  it  given.  He  hands  the  applicant  a  slip  of 
paper  on  which  is  typed  the  sentence,  *^  George  Washington  was  the  first 
president  of  the  United  States. '^  If  the  child  can  copy  this  sentence  and 
read  it,  he  passes. 

194.  The  law  establishing  continuation  schools  provides  that  on  termination 
of  emplojTnent  the  certificate  shall  be  mailed  immediately  by  the  employer 
to  the  school  authorities.    So  far  as  observed  this  injunction  is  not  obeyed. 

195.  Supra,  p.  162. 


168      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

central  educational  authority  gone  further  in  standardizing 
school  attendance  regulations.^^® 

Gradually  the  authority  of  the  State  has  been  extended  until 
now  it  is  able  not  only  to  influence  education  but  to  compel 
legal  requirements.  The  Department  of  Education  was  given 
power  in  1894^®^  to  withhold  half  the  public  funds  from  any 
district  failing  to  enforce  the  compulsory  attendance  law.  This 
power  the  Department  has  not  hesitated  to  exercise,  but  only 
as  a  final  resort.  The  ideal  of  the  department  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  this  law,  as  expressed  through  the  chief  of  its  Divi- 
sion of  Compulsory  Attendance,  has  been  that  of  cooperation 
rather  than  force.  No  effort  has  been  spared  to  gain  the  con- 
fidence of  school  officials  throughout  the  state,  and  to  let  them 
know  that  the  department  is  squarely  backing  them  in  law  en- 
forcement. Inspectors  of  the  Attendance  Division  are  busy 
among  the  schools,  and  on  occasion  the  chief  himself  goes  to 
a  particularly  difficult  field  to  assist  local  authorities  in  en- 
forcing the  law.  Much  attention  is  now  given  the  parochial 
schools,  these  being  amenable  to  the  attendance  laws  if 
children  of  the  compulsory  school  age  are  registered  in  them. 
A  great  deal  has  been  done  for  these  schools,  which,  in  many 
instances  were  ** alien  in  language,  sentiment  and  purpose,'* 
before  coming  under  the  supervision  of  the  state.^^^ 

The  most  intimate  point  of  contact  between  the  State  Depart- 
ment of  Education  and  the  schools  is  in  a  system  of  monthly 
reports  made  by  the  latter.  Each  month  transcripts  of  more 
than  14,000  registers  are  filed  by  the  schools  with  the  Attend- 
ance Division.  By  means  of  these  reports  it  is  possible  for  the 
staff  to  locate  districts  in  which  attendance  is  unsatisfactory. 
Correspondence  usually  follows,  and  if  later  reports  do  not 
show  improvement  a  visit  is  made  by  one  of  the  inspectors. 
Usually  proper  adjustments  are  made,  but  as  a  final  resort  the 
offending  community  is  penalized  by  withholding  state  funds. 


196.  Pennsylvania  is  now  attempting  a  somewhat  similar  method  of  super- 
vising attendance. 

197.  Laws  of  1894,  ch.  671. 

198.  N.  Y.  School  Eeport,  1914,  p.  410.  Since  1917  two  or  three  of  the 
inspectors  best  adapted  to  such  service  have  given  most  of  their  time  to  the 
^'foreign  language '*  schools.  It  is  peculiarly  unfortunate  that  just  as 
results  are  beginning  to  appear,  the  legislature,  in  its  zeal  to  economize, 
should  deem  it  necessary  to  reduce  by  one-half  the  staff  of  field  workers. 


NEW  YORK  169 

*'This  is  the  'big  stick/  '*  writes  Chief  Sullivan,  *'that,  when 
wielded,  has  never  failed  to  bring  results.'* 

It  should  not  be  difficult  for  New  York  to  still  further 
centralize  her  system  of  education  and  through  adequate  super- 
vision and  inspection  to  secure  practically  complete  enforce- 
ment of  the  attendance  laws.  The  state  already  exercises  ex- 
tensive authority  in  certain  phases  of  education,  apparently 
without  impairing  local  interests  or  initiative.  In  her  statutes 
she  has  expressed  the  desire  not  only  to  provide  for  every  child 
within  her  limits  an  opportunity  to  secure  an  education  adapt- 
ed to  his  needs,  but  to  require  that  he  accept  that  opportunity, 
at  least  in  so  far  as  to  remain  under  educational  influences  un- 
til well  through  the  period  of  adolescence.  It  remains  for  her 
to  perfect  the  organization  by  means  of  which  this  desire  may 
be  realized. 


CHAPTER  VII 
PENNSYLVANIA 

Pennsylvania  was  among  the  last  of  the  northern  states  to 
provide  by  compulsory  laws  for  the  education  of  her  children. 
Like  New  York  she  delayed  the  establishment  of  free  public 
schools  until  near  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  mean- 
time offering  to  such  poor  children  as  wished  to  accept  it  an 
inferior  schooling  as  a  public  charity.  The  state  was  also  late 
in  offering  adequate  protection  to  her  youth  in  industry.^  Per- 
haps no  other  state  has  been  so  sharply  criticized,  and  not 
without  cause,  for  the  extent  to  which  children  were  permitted 
to  labor  and  for  the  character  of  employment  left  open  to  them. 
Yet  to-day,  Pennsylvania  ranks  among  the  most  progressive 
states  in  the  character  of  legislation  for  the  protection,  educa- 
tion and  industrial  training  of  children. 

Universal  education  was  legally  established  in  1848,  when 
public  schools,  open  and  free  to  poor  and  rich  alike,  were  made 
compulsory  in  all  parts  of  the  state.  But  the  battle  for  the 
principle  of  public  education  was  won  more  than  a  decade 
earlier  under  the  leadership  of  Governor  George  Wolf. 

The  common  school  fund  was  established  on  a  fairly  gener- 
ous basis  in  1831,  and  in  that  year  Governor  Wolf  began  the 
fight  which,  while  it  resulted  in  his  political  overthrow,  gave 
the  state  a  system  of  free  common  schools.  The  Pennsylvania 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Public  Schools,  organized  in 
Philadelphia  in  1827,  had  carried  out  an  effective  program  of 
investigation  and  publicity,  in  which  it  exposed  the  inefficiency 
of  the  pauper  school  law  in  reaching  even  the  small  class  it 
was  supposed  to  benefit.  It  appeared  that  in  many  cases  county 
officials  were  deliberately  excluding  from  school  children  who 
under  the  law  were  entitled  to  free  tuition,  and  that,  even 


1.  Pennsylvania's  first  child  labor  law  was  enacted  in  1848.  Only  four 
states  had  preceded  her  in  such  legislation.  The  measure  of  that  year  was 
of  little  value,  and  not  until  1889  was  any  real  protection  given  to  children. 

170 


PENNSYLVANIA  171 

where  the  law  was  faithfully  carried  out,  results  were  not  sat- 
isfactory.2  The  governor,  on  first  interesting  himself  in  the 
question,  did  not  go  so  far  as  to  ask  for  a  complete  public 
elementary  school  free  to  all  classes  but  urged  only  that  the 
constitutional  requirements  be  met  and  that  all  indigent 
children  in  the  state  be  given  the  rudiments  of  learning.^  But 
in  1833  he  pushed  the  principle  to  its  logical  conclusion  and 
made  universal  education  the  leading  topic  in  his  annual 
message.  His  proposal  for  a  more  adequate  school  system  was 
well  received  both  by  the  legislature  and  by  the  people  in  many 
parts  of  the  state.  The  legislature  w^as  further  stimulated  by 
numerous  memorials  asking  for  favorable  consideration  of  a 
public  school  system ;  a  joint  committee  was  created,  headed  by 
Senator  Samuel  Breek,*  and  instructed  to  report  a  bill  for  a 
general  system  of  education.  After  a  careful  investigation  of 
other  state  school  systems,  a  needlessly  cumbersome  bill  was 
presented  and  passed  with  but  a  single  dissenting  vote.^  Free 
schools  were  not  made  compulsory  by  this  measure,  but  each 
district  might  elect  to  establish  such  schools,  provide  for  a 
school  tax,  and  share  in  the  state  funds,  or  it  might  sacrifice 
its  share  of  the  state  fund  and  continue  under  the  pauper  law 
of  1809. 

Strangely  enough,  considering  the  practically  unanimous 
action  of  the  legislature,  the  law  was  hotly  resisted  from  the 
first,  especially  in  the  districts  predominately  German.®    The 


2.  Wickersham,  Hist,  of  Ed.  in  Penn.,  p.  299. 

3.  Ibid.,  p.  296. 

4.  Senator  Breek  who  wrote  the  bill  and  was  influential  in  securing  its 
passage,  was  a  former  citizen  of  Connecticut  and  brought  with  him  to 
Pennsylvania  something  of  the  educational  ideals  of  New  England. — Penn. 
Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Vol.  XXXVII,  p.  78. 

5.  Laws,  Act  of  April  1,  1834. 

6.  Wickersham,  op.  cit.,  p.  319.  The  German  Lutheran  Church  in  Pennsyl- 
vania had  stoutly  resisted  from  the  beginning  any  form  of  education  that 
threatened  to  substitute  English  or  American  influences  for  German.  Many 
of  the  German  immigrants  prior  to  the  Revolution  were  very  poor  and  rela- 
tively ignorant.  Church  schools  were  unable  to  meet  the  educational  needs 
and  an  effort  was  made  to  bring  the  children  into  schools  supported  by 
philanthropy.  Unfortunately  the  movement  was  designated  by  the  offensive 
title,  **  The  Charitable  Scheme  to  Educate  the  Poor  Germans. '*  It  was  sup- 
ported by  English  money  (See  Weber,  The  Charity  School  Movement  in 
Colonial  Pennsylvania,  1905,  p.  22)  and  no  doubt  was  an  attempt  to  educate 
the  children  away  from  their  native  language  and  customs,  in  the  belief 
that  by  so  doing  an  intelligent  and  loyal  citizenship  might  the  more  readily 


172   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Rev.  Henry  A.  Muhlenberg  became  spokesman  for  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  law,  and  entered  the  gubernatorial  campaign  as 
a  candidate  against  Governor  Wolf  J  He  succeeded  in  dividing 
the  Democratic  vote,  thus  insuring  the  election  of  Joseph  Rit- 
ner,  who  fortunately  proved  to  be  as  fearless  a  champion  of 
free  schools  as  was  Governor  Wolf  himself.  The  next  legis- 
lature was  confronted  with  580  petitions  signed  by  31,989 
citizens,  asking  for  the  repeal  of  the  law,  while  the  names  of 
but  2083  were  presented  remonstrating  against  the  repeal.® 
The  Senate  voted  by  a  large  majority  for  repeal,  but  by  skill- 
ful manipulation  in  the  House  and  through  the  powerful  in- 
fluence of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  the  most  important  provisions  of 
the  law  were  saved  and  the  foundation  of  a  free  school  system 
assured.® 

Doubtless  the  schools  suffered  at  first  for  lack  of  expert 
direction,  and  the  advance  towards  a  free  tax-supported  school, 
compulsory  upon  all  districts,  was  probably  slower  than  it 
would  have  been  under  wise  professional  leadership.^°  But 
adoption  of  the  new  system  proceeded  quite  rapidly  after  the 
first  year,  and  in  1837  three-fourths  of  all  the  districts  outside 
Philadelphia  and  Lancaster  were  cooperating,  double  the 
number  of  children  formerly  attending  were  in  school,  while 


be  established.  The  movement  was  resisted  vigorously  by  the  church  which, 
in  1786,  introduced  in  its  litany  the  following  paragraph: 

**And  since  it  has  pleased  Thee,  chiefly  by  means  of  the  Germans,  to 
transform  this  State  into  a  blooming  garden,  and  the  desert  into  a  pleasant 
pasturage,  help  us  not  to  deny  our  nation,  but  to  endeavor  that  our  youth 
may  be  so  educated  that  German  schools  and  churches  may  not  only  be  sus- 
tained, but  may  attain  a  still  more  flourishing  condition."  Allgemeines 
Kirchengebeth;  Kirchenagende  der  Evangelisch-Lutherischen  Vereinigten 
Gemeinen  in  Nord- America,  pp.  4ff.  See  Kuhns,  German  and  Swiss  Settle- 
ments of  Colonial  Pennsylvania,  p.  117. 

7.  Mr.  Muhlenberg,  in  making  opposition  to  the  free  school  law  the  basis 
of  his  campaign,  said  of  his  German  constituency  in  a  letter  to  the  working- 
men  of  Philadelphia,  *  *  The  Germans  of  our  state  are  not  opposed  to  educa- 
tion as  such,  but  only  to  any  system  that  to  them  seems  to  trench  on  their 
paternal  and  natural  rights. — Kuhns,  op  dt.,  p.  149. 

8.  Penn.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  op.  cit.,  p.  79. 

9.  Ibid.,  pp.  81flf,  also  P.  L.,  1876,  No.  166. 

10.  Under  the  law  of  1834,  the  Secretary  of  State  was  made,  ex  ojficio, 
Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  an  arrangement  not  unusual  in  the 
earlier  years  of  the  state  school  systems.  The  practice  continued  in  Penn- 
sylvania until  1857.  Commenting  on  the  professional  character  of  the  first 
six  superintendents,  Wickersham  says:  *'A11  of  these  gentlemen  were  dis- 
tinguished lawyers  and  politicians." — Hist,  of  Ed.  in  Penn.,  p.  357. 


PENNSYLVANIA  173 

the  actual  expense  per  capita  of  instruction  was  decidedly  less 
than  under  the  old  system."  By  1847  all  but  144  districts  had 
voluntarily  adopted  the  state  system,  and  the  following  year 
the  law  was  made  general  and  each  community  was  legally 
obligated  to  maintain  a  free  public  school.^^ 

As  early  as  1844  the  superintendents  began  to  discuss  the 
evils  of  irregular  attendance  upon  the  schools,  and  in  their 
official  reports  the  subject  in  its  various  aspects  receives  a  good 
share  of  attention.^^  The  indifference  and  neglect  of  parents 
is  frequently  deplored,  one  superintendent  poetically  observing : 

**  Where  no  sheaves  have  been  gathered  in  the  stubble  of 
learning,  the  refreshing  influence  of  the  speechless  dew  will 
not  be  perceived.'*^* 

None  of  the  superintendents  advocated  compulsory  attend- 
ance; probably  the  political  scars  from  the  battle  for  com- 
pulsory schools  were  too  fresh  for  that.  Mostly,  they  deal  in 
meaningless  generalities,  but  Superintendent  C.  A.  Black,  while 
not  definitely  recommending  legislation,  faces  the  issue  square- 
ly, saying: 

**The  children  of  the  Commonwealth  are  public  property, 
and  the  government,  as  a  faithful  guardian,  cannot  discharge 
the  trust  without  preparing  them  for  the  rights  and  duties  of 
citizenship. '  *^^ 

Meanwhile  the  labor  interests  had  been  seeking  to  gain  some 
legal  concessions  for  factory  children,  but  without  success. 
After  considerable  agitation  the  Senate,  in  March,  1837,  direct- 
ed a  committee  to  gather  facts  relative  to  the  employment  of 
children  and  report  at  the  next  session.  The  following  summer 
hearings  were  held  in  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburgh,  and  a  re- 
port was  presented  on  February  7  of  the  following  year.  The 
committee  found  that  in  the  textile  industries,  where  working 
conditions  seemed  least  favorable,  one-fifth  of  all  employees 
were  under  twelve  years  of  age,  and  one-twentieth  under  ten. 


11.  Bpt.  Supt.  Com.  Schs.,  1837,  pp.  35,  46. 

12.  Laws,  1848,  No.  227.  A  few  districts  disregarded  the  law.  As  late  aa 
1868,  twenty-three  districts  representing  six  thousand  children  had  no  school 
in  operation.  The  last  district  jdelded  in  1873. — ^Wickersham,  op.  cit., 
p.  369. 

13.  Bpt.  Supt.  Com.  Schs.,  1844,  p.  7. 

14.  Ibid.,  1848,  p.  12. 

15.  Bpt.  Supt.  Com.  Schs.,  1853,  p.  15. 


174      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Parents,  it  was  found,  were  often  eager  to  secure  places  for 
little  children  under  seven.  The  hours  were  long,  eleven, 
twelve,  sometimes  fourteen  per  day;  there  was,  of  course,  no 
opportunity  for  schooling;  and  the  moral  condition  was  not 
satisfactory.  The  committee  had  satisfied  itself  that  it  was  | 
neither  desirable  nor  profitable  for  young  children  to  labor  in 
factories,  and  they  therefore  submitted  a  bill  for  a  law  in- 
tended to  exclude  from  such  employment  all  under  ten  years 
of  age,  to  require  at  least  three  months  schooling  annually  for 
all  children  employed  but  not  able  to  read,  write,  and  keep 
accounts,  and  to  limit  the  hours  of  daily  employment  for  all 
under  sixteen  to  ten.  The  bill  was  presented  at  an  unfortunate 
time,  during  the  financial  and  industrial  depression  of  1837- 
1838,  and  received  little  attention.^^  Bills  of  various  kinds 
looking  to  better  conditions  for  working  children  were  present- 
ed at  intervals,  showing  a  growing  interest  in  the  questions 
involved,  but  in  1848  there  was  unusual  activity.  Just  what 
forces  were  back  of  the  movement  is  not  now  known,  as  the 
papers  of  the  period  are  silent  on  that  point.^^  But  on  March 
27,  a  law  was  enacted,  which  excluded  from  textile  factories 
all  children  under  twelve  years  of  age  and  made  ten  hours  the 
legal  working  day  for  those  under  sixteen,  with  a  proviso  that 
those  of  fourteen  or  above  might  be  employed  for  a  longer 
period  on  special  contract  with  the  parent  or  guardian.^^  The 
penalty  upon  the  employer  for  the  violation  of  the  law  was 
fifty  dollars,  with  the  unique  provision  that  one-half  the  sum 
should  go  to  the  child  employed.  There  was  no  educational 
clause,  means  of  enforcement  were  lacking,  and  the  measure 
was  satisfactory  to  no  one.^® 

The  following  year,  by  a  most  extraordinary  bit  of  legisla- 
tive jockeying,  the  law  of  1848  was  repealed  and  another  en- 
acted raising  the  age  limit  for  employment  in  textile,  paper, 
and  bagging  factories  to  thirteen,  requiring  that  those  under 
sixteen  might  not  be  compelled  to  work  more  than  ten  hours 
in  one  day  and  forbidding  the  employment  of  any  protected 

16.  Barnard,  Factory  Legislation  in  Penn.,  1907,  pp.  15-17. 

17.  Barnard,  op.  cit.,  p.  49. 

18.  Laws,  1848,  No.  227. 

19.  See  Barnard,  op.  cit. 


PENNSYLVANIA  175 

person  for  a  longer  period  than  nine  months  unless  he  had 
attended  school  for  at  least  three  consecutive  months  within 
the  same  year.^o  rpj^^  system  of  penalties  for  the  violation  of 
the  several  provisions  of  this  law  was  peculiar  and  in  itself 
sufficiently  cumbersome  and  indefinite  to  encourage  non- 
enforcement.  Parents  and  guardians  permitting  children  under 
thirteen  to  work  in  the  forbidden  industries  and  those  **  will- 
fully and  knoAvingly"  employing  them  were  subject  to  a  fine 
of  fifty  dollars.  Parents  and  guardians  alone  were  liable  to 
such  fine  for  permitting  a  child  to  work  for  more  than  ten 
hours,  and  employers  alone  for  failure  to  see  that  the  school- 
ing requirement  had  been  met.  Half  the  fine  was  to  go  to 
the  person  bringing  suit  and  half  to  the  county.  Some  minor 
changes  were  made  in  the  law  in  1855,^^  but  they  gave  it  little 
strength,  and  apparently  it  was  never  enforced.  Employers 
were  even  unaware  of  its  existence,^^  and  it  lay  upon  the  statute 
books  inoperative  for  forty  years.^^ 

The  educational  pro^dsions  of  the  child  labor  law  seem  not 
to  have  interested  school  officials.  One  State  Superintendent 
mentions  it,^*  but  does  not  suggest  legislation  to  render  co- 
operation possible.  There  was  evidently  no  wish  to  inaugurate 
compulsory  attendance,  even  of  the  indirect  type  of  the  child 
labor  act.  The  schools  were  inadequate  for  the  proper  ac- 
commodation of  the  children  who  attended  voluntarily.  Ma- 
terial equipment  was  insufficient,^^  and  teachers  were  un- 
trained, incompetent,  and  sometimes  uncouth.^^     It  was  not 


20.  Laws,  1849,  No.  415. 

21.  Laws,  1855,  No.  501. 

22.  Barnard,  op.  cit.,  p.  23f. 

23.  In  1889,  a  workable  law  was  enacted  and  factory  inspection  inaugurated. 

24.  Bpt.  Supt.  of  Com.  Sch^.,  1857,  p.  69. 

25.  State  Superintendent  Wickersham,  in  his  first  annual  report,  1866,  p.  viii, 
presents  a  brief  survey  of  the  school  buildings  of  the  state;  a  summary 
follows  : 

Total  number  of  school  buildings  11301 

Number  unfit  for  use  1848 

Number  lacking  outbuildings  4545 

Number  lacking  adequate  grounds  6210 

Number  lacking  proper  or  sufficient  furniture        5888 
Number  wholly  without  apparatus  1847 

26.  A  teacher  is  described  by  a  superintendent  who  saw  him  at  work  as 
**  without  coat  or  jacket,  his  pantaloons  low  down  on  his  hips,  and,  worse 
than  all,  barefooted. ' '—Spt.  Supt.  Com.  Schs.,  1857,  p.  18. 


176      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

possible  to  urge  compulsory  attendance  until  the  educational 
facilities  could  be  improved. 

Superintendent  Wickersham  realized  that  the  question  of 
irregular  attendance  and  absenteeism  must  be  faced  presently. 
In  his  report  of  1867  he  mentions  it,  not,  he  says,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  suggesting  a  remedy,  but  in  order  that  an  inquiry  as 
to  its  cause  and  cure  may  be  started.  As  a  preliminary  step 
to  such  an  inquiry  he  suggests  that  legal  provision  be  made 
for  a  school  census.^^  It  was  known  that  many  children  were 
growing  up  without  school  advantages;  Mr.  Wickersham  es- 
timated that  the  number  would  reach  75,000,  an  estimate  fair- 
ly well  sustained  by  the  figures  published  a  few  years  later  by 
the  Bureau  of  Industrial  Statistics.^^  Reluctantly  Dr.  Wicker- 
sham came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  way  to  stem  the 
tide  of  ignorance  in  Pennsylvania  was  by  sharp,  decisive  law. 
However,  like  Horace  Mann  in  Massachusetts  a  generation 
earlier,  he  feared  compulsory  attendance  laws  as  being  out  of 
harmony  with  the  American  idea  of  democracy.  He  realized 
also,  as  one  of  the  keenest  students  of  education  in  the  State, 
that  the  people  would  not  at  that  time  sympathize  with  the 
enforcement  of  such  measures.  He  regarded  the  compulsory 
legislation  of  Massachusetts  as  unsuccessful,  saying: 

**The  experience  in  Massachusetts  teaches  us  that  we  in 
Pennsylvania  must  look  in  some  other  direction  than  that  of 
a  compulsory  law  to  find  the  remedy  we  are  seeking  for  the 
evil  of  non-attendance  at  school.  "^^ 

He  recognized  the  tendency  towards  state  control,  however, 
saying : 

**If  society  cannot  be  so  improved  as  to  make  parents,  and 
those  who  have  the  care  of  children,  feel  the  importance  of 
sending  them  to  school,  and  sending  them  regularly,  the  time 
will  surely  come  when  the  State  will  pass  a  law  compelling 
such  attendance.  I  prefer  to  test  voluntary  action  fully,  fair- 
ly, and  patiently,  before  resorting  to  fine.^'^^ 

But  by  1873  Dr.  Wickersham  was  advocating  a  compulsory 
attendance  law,  the  child  to  be  taken  from  the  parent  who  re- 


27.  Ibid.,  1867,  p.  ix. 

28.  Bpt.  Bu.  of  Indust.  Stat.,  1873,  p.  101;  1874,  p.  532. 

29.  Ept.  Supt.  Com.  Schs.,  1871,  p.  xxvi. 

30.  Ibid.,  1870,  p.  xiii. 


PENNSYLVANIA  177 

fused  to  comply  with  it,  and  educated  in  county  or  district 
homes  pro\dded  for  the  purpose,  the  parent,  if  financially  able, 
paying  the  necessary  expenses.^^  Such  a  measure  would  be 
quite  different,  Mr.  Wickersham  held,  from  the  undemocratic 
compulsory  education  of  Europe,  but  would  be  *'a  kind  of 
compulsory  education  in  consonance  with  our  American  ideas 
of  the  functions  of  republican  government  and  the  sacredness 
of  the  family  relation/ '^^ 

Throughout  the  period  of  his  service  as  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction,  Mr.  Wickersham  continued  to  discuss 
the  evils  of  non-attendance.  He  was  unable  to  give  anything 
more  satisfactory  than  estimates  as  to  the  number  of  children 
out  of  school  but  was  sure  conditions  were  not  improving  and 
that  legislative  action  had  become  necessary.  He  framed  a 
bill  intended  to  provide  for  the  maintenance  and  education  of 
poor  and  neglected  children,  thousands  of  whom  were  now  to 
be  found  in  the  county  almshouses,  but  it  could  muster  barely 
eighty  votes  in  the  House.^  His  successor,  Mr.  E.  E.  Higbee, 
dropped  the  fight  Mr.  Wickersham  had  been  waging,  saying 
in  his  first  report,  **We  have  very  serious  misgivings  as  to  the 
propriety  of  any  strictly  compulsory  law  and  are  unwilling 
at  this  time  to  urge  the  passage  of  any  such  law  upon  the 
legislature."^*  Later,  as  he  became  more  familiar  with  con- 
ditions, he  accepted  the  principle  of  state  interference. 

In  1885  the  employment  of  children  had  been  restricted  in 
and  about  coal  mines,**  but  no  legal  authority  could  bring 
them,  thus  released  from  work,  into  the  schools.  In  1886  the 
chief  of  the  bureau  of  industrial  statistics,  J.  E.  McCamant, 
gave  considerable  attention  to  the  working  and  educational 
conditions  of  children,  examining  available  statistical  matter, 
making  many  personal  inspections,  and  gathering  data  through 


31.  Ibid.,  1873,  p.  xxiv. 

32.  Ibid.,  1874,  p.  xiii.  It  is  difficult  to  distinguish  between  the  undemo- 
cratic compulsory  education  to  which  Dr.  "Wickersham  objects  and  the  form 
which  he  is  willing  to  admit  as  in  harmony  with  American  ideals. 

33.  Bpt.  Snpt.  Pub.  Inst.,  1880,  pp.  xvii,  xix. 

34.  Ibid.,  1881,  p.  xi. 

35.  Laws,  1885,  Nos.  169,  170.  No  boy  under  twelve,  no  woman  or  girl  of 
any  age,  was  to  be  employed  in  bituminous  coal  mines,  and  no  boy  under 
ten,  and  no  woman  or  girl,  in  or  about  the  outside  structure  or  workings, 
while  in  and  about  anthracite  mines  the  age  limit  was  two  years  higher. 


178      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

responsible  agents.  According  to  the  census  of  1880,  72,441 
children  between  ten  and  fifteen  years  of  age  were  employed 
in  the  state.  Mr.  McCamant  contended  that  at  least  125,000 
children  of  the  ages  indicated  were  employed.  False  returns 
had  been  made,  he  thought,  by  both  parents  and  employers. 
He  himself  had  found  children  only  seven  years  of  age  in  fac- 
tories after  having  been  assured  by  the  management  that  none 
under  thirteen  were  employed.  He  held  that  not  less  than 
200,000  children  were  growing  to  years  of  maturity  in  ignor- 
ance. **If  the  privilege  of  education  is  refused,"  he  said,  **the 
general  safety  requires  that  it  be  made  compulsory. '  '^^ 

By  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  labor  every- 
where had  grown  much  more  powerful.  Its  program  in  nearly 
all  the  northern  states  had  come  to  include  a  demand  for  en- 
forceable laws  restricting  the  labor  of  children  and  providing 
for  their  education.  In  1887  there  was  an  active  campaign 
for  effective  legislation  in  Pennsylvania.  A  law  w^as  passed 
which  prohibited  the  employment  of  children  under  twelve  in 
any  mill,  manufactory,  or  mine.^^  The  measure  was  somewhat 
broader  than  that  which  it  displaced,  though  it  was  not  en- 
forceable and  probably  was  not  intended  to  be.  Barnard  says 
of  it,  ** After  so  many  years  of  trial,  in  which  the  utter  worth- 
lessness  of  such  laws  had  been  demonstrated,  one  does  not 
know  whether  to  charge  the  legislators  with  stupidity  or  in- 
sincerity.**^® 

The  forces  in  favor  of  stronger  protective  measures  for 
children,  stimulated  rather  than  discouraged  by  their  partial 
failure  in  1887,  effected  a  strong  organization  and  again  went 
before  the  Assembly  in  1889.  Though  opposed  by  a  powerful 
and  skillful  lobby,  a  law  was  secured  which,  although  un- 
satisfactory in  many  respects,  was  provided  with  some  of  the 
machinery  essential  to  enforcement.^^  Its  most  important  pro- 
visions were: 


36.  Bpt.  Bu.  Indust.  Stat.,  1886,  pp.  38-50.  It  is  instructive  to  observe  that 
the  pressure  which  resulted  at  last  in  a  compulsory  attendance  law  came 
largely  from  forces  not  in  direct  connection  with  education. 

37.  Laws,  1887,  No.  172. 

38.  Child  Labor  Legislation  in  Penn.,  p.  54. 

39.  Penn.  Laws,  1889,  No.  243. 


PENNSYLVANIA  179 

1.  No  child  under  twelve  was  to  be  employed  in  any  factory 
or  mercantile  establishment  employing  ten  or  more  women  and 
children.*" 

2.  No  minor  was  to  be  employed  for  more  than  sixty  hours 
in  one  week. 

3.  Employers  were  required  to  keep  a  register  containing 
the  name,  birthplace,  age,  and  residence  of  each  employee 
under  sixteen. 

4.  The  statement  of  age  and  date  and  place  of  birth  was 
to  be  supported  by  the  affidavit  of  parent  or  guardian,  or  if 
none,  by  the  child  himself. 

5.  The  governor  was  directed  to  appoint  a  factory  inspector 
who  in  turn  was  to  appoint  not  more  than  six  deputy  in- 
spectors, half  of  whom  were  to  be  Avomen.  The  inspectors  were 
given  authority  to  visit  and  inspect  all  shops  and  factories  em- 
ploying women  and  children,  to  enforce  the  act,  and  to  prase- 
cute  in  case  of  Adolation. 

This  measure  was  obviously  faulty.  Proof  of  age  was  en- 
tirely inadequate;  nothing  was  said  about  education;  it  did 
not  protect  children  in  mines;  the  great  numbers  of  small 
factories  and  mercantile  establishments  were  left  free  to  em- 
ploy a  child  of  any  age;  the  number  of  inspectors  was  not 
sufficient.  But  the  law  had  within  it  possibilities  of  develop- 
ment, and  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  step  forw^ard  in  the  pro- 
tection of  childhood.  The  inspectors  went  to  work  at  once,  and 
while  there  were  difficulties  in  enforcement,  many  children 
imder  twelve  were  found  and  dismissed.  There  were  others 
clearly  under  age  but  certified  by  parents  as  twelve  or  more  who 
could  not  be  dismissed  without  first  proving  that  the  affidavit 
was  false,  a  very  difficult  thing  to  do.*^  The  courts  and  pro- 
secuting attorneys  were  very  tender  with  employers.  It  was 
extremely  difficult  for  an  inspector  to  get  a  case  before  the 
court,  and  when  he  succeeded  in  doing  so  he  was  often  made 
to  feel  that  the  judge  was  unfriendly  to  the  law.  Not  in- 
frequently cases  were  dismissed  for  lack  of  evidence,  even  when 
the  testimony  as  to  the  \4olation  of  the  law  was  positive  and 
clear.*-     Yet  the  law  was  enforced  in  a  sufficient  number  of 


40.  The  law  of  1849  forbade  the  employment  in  textile  mills  of  children 
under  thirteen,  but  as  it  was  never  enforced  the  dropping  off  of  one  year 
can  scarcely  be  called  a  backward  step. 

41.  Bu.  of  Indust.  Stat.,  1891,  E,  p.  83. 

42.  Ibid.,  1892,  F,  pp.  4,  5,  8. 


180      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

cases  to  bring  upon  the  inspectors  the  criticism  of  excessive 
severity,  though  at  the  same  time  labor  unions  were  accusing 
them  of  being  too  lenient,  even  derelict  in  their  duties.'*^  These 
criticisms  indicate  that  the  law  was  being  administered  with 
some  regard  to  industrial  and  social  conditions. 

Attempts  were  made  to  bring  all  children  below  the  legal 
working  age  into  the  schools.    In  the  decade,  1880  to  1890,  the 
population  of  the  state  had  increased  nearly  25  per  cent,  in 
the  cities  almost  43  per  cent,  but  the  increase  in  school  attend- 
ance had  been  but  11  per  cent.**    Superintendent  Waller  as- 
sumed a  much  more  positive  attitude  toward  compulsory  at- 
tendance than  had  his  predecessors  in  office.     He  urged  that 
Pennsylvania  join  the  twenty-seven  states  and  territories  al- 
ready making  some  compulsory  provision  for  education,  say- 
ing, apparently  as  a  climax  to  his  argument,  **Even  Wiscon- 
sin, though  she  repealed  the  Bennet  law,  is  to-day  compelling 
the   attendance   of   all   children   of   school   age.*'*^    Superin- 
tendent Schaeffer,  who  in  1893  began  his  long  career  as  head 
of  the  public  school  system,  was  not  at  first  favorable  to  a 
compulsory  law.     Like  Superintendent  Wickersham,  he  held 
that  public  sentiment  should  first  be  made  favorable  to  such 
legislation.    Like  him,  also,  he  urged  a  school  census  in  order 
that  it  might  be  determined  how  many  children  were  actually 
out  of  school  and  what  obstacles  must  be  removed  to  secure 
their  regular  attendance.*^    He  also  regarded  it  as  impracti- 
cable to  compel  children  to  attend  school  in  such  quarters  as 
still  served  many  districts  for  school  houses:    **To  speak  of 
forcing  children  into  such  school  rooms  and  surroundings  by 
a  compulsory  law  makes  one  think  of  Herod,  who  slaughtered 
the   innocents   at   Bethlehem.***^     He   held   that   there    were 
economic  conditions  which  would  prevent  the  successful  en- 
forcement of  such  a  law  and  cautioned  against  measures  which 
would  keep  boys,  who  eventually  must  be  wage-earners,  too 


43.  Ibid.,  p.  4. 

44.  Ept.  Supt.  Pub.  Inst.,  1891,  p.  x. 

45.  Ibid.,  1892,  p.  viii.    In  1891  and  1893  compulsory  attendance  bills  had 
passed  both  houses  but  were  vetoed  by  Governor  Robert  E.  Pattison. 

46.  Bpt.  Supt.  Pub.  Inst.,  1893,  p.  vii. 

47.  Ibid.,  1894,  p.  iv. 


PENNSYLVANIA  181 

loEg  out  of  the  industries,*®  but  suggested  the  modification  of 
the  child  labor  law  so  as  to  require  three  or  four  months  school- 
ing each  year  for  all  working  children  under  fifteen. 

However,  the  movement  toward  compulsory  school  attend- 
ance was  under  way,  and  on  May  16,  1895,  a  law  was  passed 
requiring  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  thirteen  to 
attend  school  for  at  least  sixteen  weeks  each  year.*^  The 
measure  was  amended  in  1897,^°  requiring  that  attendance 
should  begin  at  the  opening  of  the  term  unless  otherwise 
ordered  by  the  board,  providing  for  a  more  careful  enumera- 
tion of  pupils,'^  extending  the  upper  age  limit  to  sixteen,  un- 
less the  child  was  thirteen  and  regularly  employed,  and  ex- 
tending the  annual  term  of  required  attendance  to  70  per  cent 
of  the  school  year. 

Enforcement  of  the  compulsory  attendance  law  was  left 
wholly  to  the  local  boards.  On  the  whole  its  reception  by 
school  officials  was  cordial,^^  such  opposition  as  developed  be- 
ing local  rather  than  general.  Certain  farming  communities 
were  openly  hostile.    They  maintained  that  they  must  not  be 


48.  Compare  with  argument  in  Connecticut,  in  1885,  supra,  p.  101. 

49.  Laws,  1895,  No.  53.  Gov.  Daniel  H.  Hastings  prefaced  his  signature  to 
this  bill  by  a  lengthy  explanation,  as  if  to  shift  responsibility  for  what  he 
evidently  believed  to  be,  at  the  best,  doubtful  legislation.    He  said : 

"By  giving  my  approval  to  this  measure,  there  will  appear  upon  our 
statute  books  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Commonwealth  a  com- 
pulsory educational  law. 

"The  General  Assembly  in  the  sessions  of  1891  and  1893  passed  a  com- 
pulsory educational  act  somewhat  similar  to  the  present  measure,  each  of 
which  met  with  executive  disapproval.  There  appears  to  be  throughout  the 
Commonwealth  a  general  desire  for  such  a  law.  I  have  not  received  a  single 
protest  from  any  citizen  against  the  bill  so  far  as  I  recollect.  The  unanim- 
ity with  which  it  was  passed  by  the  Legislature  as  well  as  the  large  number 
of  requests  made  upon  me  to  sign  it,  clearly  indicate  the  general  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  people  for  a  compulsory  educational  law.  Under  the  condi- 
tions, I  am  convinced  that  I  should  not  obtrude  any  individual  judgment 
which  I  may  have  on  this  question  of  public  policy.  The  measure  provides 
for  compulsory  education  in  perhaps  the  least  objectional  form  to  those  who 
oppose  it  on  principle,  and  offends  as  little  against  the  personal  rights  of 
the  citizen  as  possible.  I,  therefore,  approve  the  bill,  but,  if  by  experience, 
the  expectations  of  the  people  are  not  realized,  future  legislation  will  doubt- 
less meet  their  demands.'' — P.  L.,  1895,  No.  53. 

50.  Laws,  1897,  No.  248. 

51.  In  1896,  after  twenty-five  years  of  urging  by  school  authorities,  a  school 
census  was  provided  for.  It  was  not  adequate,  nor  has  a  complete  school 
census,  state-wide  in  scope,  as  yet  been  established. 

52.  Bpt.  Supt.  Fub.  Inst.,  1897,  pp.  17,  19,  42. 


182   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

deprived  of  the  services  of  their  young  children  in  the  labor 
of  home  and  farm,  and  more  particularly  they  resented  inter- 
ference by  the  state  in  what  they  regarded  as  their  parental 
rights.  Superintendent  Schaeffer,  commenting  upon  this,  said: 
''A  quarter  of  a  century  ago  similar  sentiments  were  heard 
from  the  lips  of  prominent  school  officials  and  were  applauded 
at  educational  meetings.  To-day,  very  different  views  pre- 
vail." Again,  **The  argument  used  to  justify  farmers  for  not 
complying  with  the  law  will  sound  strange  in  the  next 
century. ''^^ 

Meanwhile,  some  advance  had  been  made  in  child  labor  legis- 
lation. The  number  of  forbidden  industries  had  been  in- 
creased;"* the  lower  age  limit  was  advanced  from  twelve  to 
thirteen,  and  the  law  was  made  to  apply  in  all  establishments 
employing  five  women  or  children,  instead  of  ten,  as  former- 
ly."" The  maximum  working  day  was  increased  at  this  time 
from  ten  hours  to  twelve,  but  the  week  was  to  be  no  longer 
than  sixty  hours.  These  changes  were  in  the  line  of  progress 
or  ease  in  enforcement,  and  were  based  on  recommendations 
growing  out  of  the  actual  administration  of  the  law.  The  in- 
spectors, now  increased  to  twelve  besides  the  chief,  were  more 
nearly  able  to  cover  the  field,  and  few  children  without  the 
required  evidence  of  age  were  found.  It  was  clear  to  the  field 
workers,  however,  that  many  no  more  than  ten  or  eleven  years 
old  were  holding  such  papers.  Not  only  were  parents  swear- 
ing falsely  to  secure  employment  for  their  children,  but  nota- 
ries were  issuing  certificates  to  those  under  the  legal  age  simply 
for  the  small  fees  obtainable."®  As  a  safeguard  against  the 
lying  affidavit,  the  chief  inspector  urged  that  certificates  of 
age  be  issued  by  the  school  authorities.  This  degree  of  co- 
operation between  industrial  and  educational  forces  was  not 
to  be  reached  until  1905,  but  in  1897  it  was  provided  that  all 
children  between  thirteen  and  sixteen  not  able  to  read  and 
write  in  the  English  language  should  attend  some  school  six- 

53.  Ihid.,  1898,  p.  iv. 

54.  Laws,  1893,  No.  244 ;  Laws,  1897,  No.  148. 

55.  All  restrictions  as  to  the  number  of  persons  to  be  employed  in  order  to 
bring  an  establishment  under  the  law  were  dropped  in  1897. 

56.  Ept.  Fac.  Insp.,  1894,  p.  9. 


PENNSYLVANIA  183 

teen  weeks  each  year  before  they  could  be  employed  in  the 
restricted  industries.  As  evidence  of  school  attendance  the 
illiterate  youth  was  to  present  a  certificate  signed  by  a  teacher 
stating  that  the  attendance  requirements  had  been  met.  Such 
was  the  beginning  of  legalized  cooperation  between  school  and 
industry  in  this  state,  not  extensive,  to  be  sure,  and  to  be  tem- 
porarily abandoned  in  1901,  yet  giving  some  promise  of  future 
development. 

The  various  laws  intended  to  protect  children  were  far  from 
ideal  at  the  close  of  the  century.  Illiterate  children  might 
now  be  forced  from  the  shop,  factory,  and  store,  but  if  over 
thirteen  they  could  not  be  required  to  attend  school.  Any  boy 
of  twelve  might  legally  be  employed  in  the  bituminous  mines 
and  while  some  of  the  illiterates  dismissed  from  illegal  em- 
ployment entered  schools,  others  took  places  in  or  about  the 
mines.^^  But  comparisons,  now  possible  through  the  records 
of  the  factory  inspector,  give  evidence  of  progress.  In  1890 
ten  per  cent  of  the  employees  of  establishments  subject  to  in- 
spection were  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age.  At  the 
close  of  the  decade,  less  than  five  per  cent  were  under  sixteen. 
Many  establishments  had  given  up  employing  children  because 
of  the  trouble  in  keeping  the  required  register  and  looking 
after  age  and  attendance  certificates.^® 

In  the  year  1901  the  legislature  undertook  to  make  some 
alterations  in  the  compulsory  attendance  law  of  1895,  already 
rendered  somewhat  confusing  by  amendments.^®  The  attorney 
general  ruled  that  this  law  repealed  all  the  previous  legislation, 
thus  clearing  the  field  and  simplifying  administration.®^  The 
more  important  provisions  of  the  new  law  were  as  follows: 

1.  All  children  between  eight  and  thirteen  years  of  age 
were  to  attend,  for  the  entire  session,  some  school  where  the 
common  English  branches  were  taught;  all  between  thirteen 
and  sixteen  were  to  so  attend  unless  able  to  read  and  wTite 
English  intelligently,  and  regularly  employed. 

2.  Exemption  from  the  penalties  of  the  law  might  be  grant- 
ed to  those  who  lived  more  than  two  miles  from  a  school  and 


57.  T,pt.  Fac.  Insp.,  1899,  p.  5. 

58.  Ibid.,  1900,  p.  7. 

59.  Laius,  1901,  No.  335. 

60.  Bpt.  Supt.  Pui.  Inst.,  1901,  pp.  vii,  viii. 


184      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

to  those  who  were  prevented  from  attending  by  *' mental, 
physical,  or  other  urgent  reasons.  '*  School  boards  were  author- 
ized to  reduce  the  period  of  compulsory  attendance  to  not  less 
than  seventy  per  cent  of  the  full  session  of  the  public  schools. 

3.  The  penalty  upon  teacher  or  parent  for  failure  to  carry 
out  the  provisions  of  the  law  was,  for  the  first  offense,  a  fine 
of  not  over  two  dollars  or  a  jail  sentence  of  not  to  exceed  two 
days;  for  subsequent  offenses  the  fine  was  not  to  exceed  five 
dollars  and  the  prison  sentence  was  not  to  exceed  five  days. 

4.  Attendance  officers  were  required  in  city  districts,  and 
permitted  elsewhere. 

5.  Enforcement  was  left  entirely  to  local  school  author- 
ities, but  the  state  superintendent  was  given  power  to  with- 
hold one-fourth  of  the  state  appropriation  in  case  any  district 
failed  to  enforce  the  law. 

In  the  same  year  the  child  labor  law  was  subjected  to 
changes  not,  on  the  whole,  in  the  direction  of  progress.^^  The 
slight  connection  with  the  schools  made  in  1897  was  dis- 
continued, and  instead  of  the  schooling  certificate  signed  by  a 
teacher  formerly  required  of  illiterates  between  thirteen  and 
sixteen,  the  issuing  officer  was  to  examine  all  applicants  for 
working  papers  as  to  ability  to  read  and  write.^^  Naturally, 
the  examination  was  a  farce.  If  the  child  could  stumble 
through  a  simple  selection  such  as  a  third  grade  child  should 
handle  with  ease,  and  then  sign  his  name  to  the  application, 
the  requirement  of  the  ability  to  ^*read  and  write  simple 
sentences  in  the  English  language'*  was  regarded  as  met,  and 
a  certificate  was  issued,  provided  the  child  was  able  to  pay 
the  twenty-five  cents  which  the  wretched  system  required.®^ 

Though  it  was  generally  understood  that  politics  had  en- 
tered very  definitely  into  the  child  labor  situation,  the  field 
work  was  carried  forward  with  increasing  vigor.  Employers, 
aldermen,  and  notaries  had  been  prosecuted  and  fined  for 
infraction  of  the  law,®*  and  nearly  3000  children  in  a  single 
year  had  been  found  illegally  employed  and  dismissed.®^    In 


61.  Laws,  1901,  No.  206. 

62.  Certificates  could  be  issued  by  magistrates,  aldermen,  justices,  and 
notaries. 

63.  Barnard,  Fac.  Leg.  in  Penn.,  pp.  97,  147. 

64.  :Rpt.  Fac,  Insp.,  1902,  p.  10 ;  1903,  p.  xii. 

65.  It  is  reported  that  65  per  cent  of  all  the  children  between  thirteen  and 
sixteen  at  work  in  the  restricted  industries  in  1903  were  employed  illegally, 
mostly  with  faulty  certificates  or  with  none  at  all.    Hid,  p.  iv. 


PENNSYLVANIA  185 

1903  Mr.  J.  C.  Delaney  was  made  Chief  Factory  Inspector.  At 
once  he  instituted  an  inquiry  to  determine  the  extent  of  illegal 
child  labor  in  the  state.  He  satisfied  himself  that  charges  to 
the  effect  that  the  factories  and  workshops  were  crowded  with 
under-age  children  had  been  made  without  much  basis.  Of 
3243  children  found  illegally  employed  in  1904  only  180  were 
under  thirteen.  A  large  proportion  of  the  violations  discovered 
was  due  to  the  inadequate  system  of  employment  certificates 
in  use,  and  he  prepared  a  bill  to  advance  the  requirements 
which  he  proposed  to  lay  before  the  legislature  for  approval.®® 
But  new  forces  now  entered  the  field.  The  Pennsylvania  Child 
Labor  Committee  was  organized  in  1904,  briQging  together 
various  interests  concerned  in  the  welfare  of  children.  An  in- 
vestigation was  made  during  the  summer  which  revealed  the 
need  for  closely  cooperating  child  labor  and  school  attendance 
laws.®^  On  the  basis  of  information  gathered,  a  bill  was  pre- 
pared, the  most  expert  legislative  drafters  available  being  con- 
sulted. It  is  said  that  the  bill  was  redrafted  twenty-two  times 
in  an  effort  to  embody  in  an  enforceable  measure  the  following 
essential  standards  :®^ 

1.  A  true  age  limitation  to  be  established  through  certifi- 
cates based  on  recorded  evidence  rather  than  on  affidavits. 

2.  The  prohibition  of  night  work  for  all  under  sixteen. 

3.  The  protection  of  children  in  all  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial pursuits. 

The  bill  met  with  strong  opposition,  even  some  who  were 
favorable  to  advance  being  opposed  to  certain  of  its  features. 
The  chief  factory  inspector  was  not  pleased  with  interference 
with  his  plans,  and  compromises  with  his  forces  were  neces- 
sary, but  finally,  after  a  long  campaign,  the  bill,  considerably 
modified,  was  passed.®® 


6C.  Bpt.  Fac.  Insp.y  1904,  p.  6.  Unofficial  investigators  report  many  under 
age  children  at  work  at  this  time.  Example,  Kellogg  Durland,  in  Outlook. 
Vol.  LXXIV,  p.  124ff. 

67.  First  Annual  Beport,  National  Child  Labor  Committee,  pp.  5,  6. 

68.  Barnard,  op.  cit.,  p.  99. 

69.  Laws,  1905,  No.  226.  The  secretary  of  the  National  Child  Labor  Com- 
mittee, Professor  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay,  then  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, now  of  Columbia,  was  very  active  in  the  interests  of  this  bill,  and 
by  those  in  intimate  touch  with  the  movement  was  given  large  credit  for 
its  passage. 


186      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

The  law  of  1905,  though  a  compromise,  was  an  improvement 
over  the  preceding  one  in  the  following  respects: 

1.  The  minimum  age  at  which  a  child  could  be  employed 
was  raised  to  fourteen. 

2.  Night  work  for  minors  under  sixteen  and  for  women  was 
forbidden  except  when  necessary  to  prevent  waste  of  materials. 

3.  Employment  certificates  could  be  issued  only  by  school 
authorities  or  a  factory  inspector. 

4.  Adequate  proof  of  age  and  evidence  of  physical  fitness 
to  perform  the  work  proposed  was  required. 

Chief  Delaney  did  not  approve  the  law,  though  it  brought 
him  a  salary  of  $5,000.  He  had  favored  the  old  form  of  em- 
ployment certificate  issued  by  magistrates,  aldermen,  justices, 
and  notaries,  even  though  he  himself  had  found  some  of  these 
officials  notoriously  corrupt  and  had  prosecuted  them  success- 
fully for  issuing  illegal  certificates.  He  did  not  like  to  see 
the  employment  certificates  in  the  hands  of  the  school  superin- 
tendents. **  However  well  this  change  may  have  looked  in 
theory,'*  he  said,  *'in  practice  it  has  proved  a  lamentable 
failure. ''^*^  Some  superintendents,  he  reported,  refused  to  per- 
form their  duty  because  there  was  no  fee;  others  could  not 
understand  the  law.  During  vacation,  when  the  superintend- 
ents were  not  always  accessible,  the  deputy  factory  inspectors 
were  obliged  to  neglect  their  other  duties  to  issue  employment 
certificates.  **In  some  districts  the  conditions  could  not  have 
been  worse,'*  he  said,  **had  the  school  officers  conspired  to  ob- 
struct the  parents  and  the  employers  of  children  in  their  law- 
given  rights.'*" 

The  new  law  was  not  well  enforced  even  in  the  short  time 
it  was  permitted  to  remain  operative.  Notaries,  justices,  and 
others  began  to  issue  certificates  on  simple  affidavits,  exactly 
as  before,  nor  would  they  stop  until  several  had  been  prosecut- 
ed by  the  department  of  factory  inspection.'^^  ^^^  ^^  October 
the  portions  of  the  law  dealing  with  physical  and  educational 
requirements  and  proof  of  age  were  declared  unconstitutional, 

70.  Bpt.  Fac.  Insp.,  1906,  p.  14. 

71.  Ibid.  Opposition  on  the  part  of  a  certain  element  to  entrusting  the 
issuance  of  working  papers  to  the  educational  authorities  has  been  apparent 
in  other  states. 

72.  Barnard,  op.  cit.,  p.  146. 


PENNSYLVANIA  187 

first  in  the  anthracite  law,  later  in  the  factory  act."  There 
was  nothing  for  the  department  of  factory  inspection  to  do 
but  to  carry  forward  their  work  on  the  old  basis.  Barnard 
said: 

''The  old-time  scandalous  condition  of  affairs  which  pre- 
vailed before  the  new  law  went  into  effect  is  restored.  The 
old  lying  affidavit,  with  the  accompanying  farcical  test  of  the 
applicant's  ability  to  read  simple  sentences  and  write  his  own 
name,  and  with  virtually  no  physical  test,  is  once  again  in 
effect."^* 

Chief  Delaney  at  once  began  to  urge  early  legislation  to  re- 
lieve what  was  clearly  an  intolerable  situation,  taking  an  oc- 
casional thrust  at  those  who  had  been  active  in  the  legislative 
struggle  of  1904-1905  by  demanding  a  '* practical"  law  rather 
than  "rash  legislation"  advocated  by  *  *  prof essional  child  labor 
agitators.  "^^  Doubtless  he  sincerely  desired  to  keep  children 
out  of  the  forbidden  industries,  but  he  understood  only  the  old 
political  methods  of  securing  legislation. 

In  declaring  unconstitutional  the  educational  provisions  of 
the  child  labor  law  the  courts  had  struck  at  the  most  vital 
element  of  legal  defense  which  the  state  had  been  painfully 
erecting  between  the  child  and  the  industrial  forces  which 
threatened  his  proper  development.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
relieve  the  situation  by  authorizing  attendance  officers  to  enter 
any  place  where  gainful  occupations  were  carried  on  to  see  if 
children  were  illegally  employed.''®  The  age  of  required  at- 
tendance v/as  raised  at  this  time,  bringing  labor  and  attend- 
ance laws  once  more  into  harmony  in  this  particular.  The  im- 
portance of  close  attention  to  the  enforcement  of  these  laws 
was  urged  by  the  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction, 
but  there  was  no  general  response  on  the  part  of  school  of- 
ficials.''^   Truant  officers  were  unwilling  to  exercise  effectively 

73.  Collett  vs.  Scott,  Oct.  13,  1905;  decision  sustained  by  Superior  Court 
Mar.  12,  1906;  also,  decisions  of  Attorney  General,  and  of  Judge  Staake, 
Bpt.  Fac.  Insp.,  1906,  pp.  14,  15. 

74.  Barnard,  op.  eit.,  p.  153.  The  justice  of  these  decisions  was  frankly 
questioned  by  well-informed  critics.  For  example,  see  Charities,  May  5, 
1906,  p.  189. 

75.  Bpt.  Fac.  Insp.,  1906,  p.  15. 

76.  Laws,  1907,  No.  241. 

77.  Bpt.  Supt.  Pub.  Inst.,  1907,  p.  viii. 


188   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

the  power  given  them  in  1907,  and  there  appears  to  have  been 
no  cooperation  between  them  and  the  inspectors/^ 

A  real  advance  was  made  in  the  year  1909  in  the  enactment 
of  an  excellent  child  labor  law,  including  the  best  provisions 
of  the  discredited  measure  of  1905  safeguarded  and  brought 
clearly  within  the  constitution/^  As  never  before  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  various  interests  were  united  in  backing  this 
measure.  The  Department  of  Factory  Inspection,  the  State 
Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  the  Pennsylvania  and  the 
National  Child  Labor  Committees,  the  Consumers'  League, 
Federated  Labor,  and  other  less  conspicuous  organizations  lent 
their  united  influence  to  the  pending  measure  which,  on  April 
29,  1909,  received  the  approval  of  Governor  Edwin  S.  Stuart, 
and  went  into  operation  January  1, 1910.  The  essential  features 
of  the  new  law  were  as  follows : 

1.  Minors  under  eighteen  were  not  to  be  employed  in 
dangerous  occupations. 

2.  Minors  over  fourteen  *'able  to  read  and  write  the  English 
language  intelligently,  and  physically  qualified,*'  might  be  em- 
ployed in  mercantile  establishments  and  factories  under  proper 
conditions  of  safety  as  prescribed  by  the  Chief  Factory  In- 
spector. (It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  clause  is  positive 
and  permissive,  rather  than  negative  and  prohibitive.) 

3.  No  boy  under  sixteen  and  no  girl  under  eighteen  was  to 
be  employed  more  than  ten  hours  in  a  day  nor  more  than  58 
in  a  week,  nor  before  six  in  the  morning  nor  after  nine  at 
night,  except  that  in  manufacturing  processes  requiring  con- 
tinuous operation  boys  over  fourteen  might  work  at  night,  but 
not  more  than  nine  hours  of  the  twenty-four,  if  under  sixteen. 

4.  No  child  under  sixteen  was  to  be  employed  in  the  listed 
industries  unless  he  presented  an  employment  certificate  as 
provided;  such  certificate  to  be  kept  on  file  by  the  employer 
and  made  readily  available  to  inspectors.  The  certificate  once 
issued  became  the  property  of  the  child  and  on  termination  of 
employment  it  was  to  be  returned  to  him. 

5.  All  working  papers  were  to  be  issued  by  the  superin- 
tendent or  supervising  principal  of  the  public  schools,  or  there 
being  no  such  official,  by  the  secretary  of  the  board  of  educa- 
tion, subject  to  the  following  provisions: 

a).  If  the  child  had  recently  attended  a  private  or  parochial 
school,    the    superintendent,    principal,    teacher,    or   secretary 

78.  Bpt.  Fac.  Insp.,  1909,  p.  7. 

79.  Laws,  1909,  No.  182. 


PENNSYLVANIA  189 

might  issue  the  certificate,  but  he  was  required  to  file  each 
month  with  the  proper  public  school  official  a  copy  of  every 
certificate  issued. 

b).  As  evidence  of  age  there  was  required,  if  obtainable,  a 
birth  certificate,  a  baptismal  certificate,  a  passport,  or  some 
other  official  or  religious  record  of  age,  or  a  duly  attested 
transcript  of  such  document.  But  if  documentary  evidence  of 
age  could  not  be  secured,  the  issuing  officer  might  accept  the 
affidavit  of  parent  or  guardian. 

c).  All  the  necessary  blanks  and  forms  were  to  be  provided 
by  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction. 

6.  The  penalty  for  the  illegal  employment  of  a  minor  was, 
for  the  first  offense,  a  fine  of  from  ten  to  twenty-five  dollars 
or  ten  days  in  jail  or  both;  for  subsequent  offenses,  not  more 
than  fifty  dollars  or  ninety  days  in  jail,  or  both  fine  and 
imprisonment. 

The  new  legislation,  bringing  the  school  and  labor  interests 
more  closely  together  and  recognizing  the  unity  of  the  ends 
sought,  was  cordially  endorsed  by  both  the  Department  of  In- 
spection,^^ and  by  the  Department  of  Education,  the  fact  that 
employment  certificates  were  now  to  be  issued  solely  by  those 
in  charge  of  the  schools  being  particularly  gratifying  to  the 
latter.  It  was  anticipated  that  uniformity  in  this  important 
detail  would  render  enforcement  far  less  difficult.®^ 

As  in  other  states,  the  courts  were  inclined  to  deal  leniently 
with  parents  who  violated  either  the  school  attendance  law  or 
the  labor  law.  The  records  show  few  prosecutions,  and  even 
in  cases  of  conviction  fines  were  likely  to  be  remitted  because 
of  the  poverty  of  the  offenders.®^  Neither  were  prosecutions 
against  employers  numerous.  As  a  rule  no  action  would  follow 
a  single  offense,  and  though  about  18,000  manufacturing  plants 
were  visited  in  a  single  year,  there  were  less  than  a  dozen 
prosecutions  for  violation  of  the  child  labor  law.®^  It  appears 
that  the  attendance  law  was  not  really  enforced,  but  was  per- 
mitted to  operate  so  far  as  the  sentiment  of  the  various  com- 
munities was  favorable. 

Forces  were  at  work,  however,  which  were  eventually  to 


80.  Bpt.  Fac.  Insp.,  1908,  p.  13. 

81.  Bpt.  Supt.  of  Pub.  Inst.,  1909,  p.  8. 

82.  Bpt.  Chief  Factory  Inspector,  1908,  p.  14. 

83.  IMd.,  1912,  p.  3. 


190      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

secure  for  Pennsylvania  legislation  in  behalf  of  working 
children  equal  to  that  in  any  other  state.  In  1907  the  Governor 
was  directed  to  appoint  a  commission  to  revise  and  codify  the 
school  laws.  A  code  was  prepared,  was  accepted  by  the  legis- 
lature in  1909,  but  failed  to  receive  executive  approval.  With 
minor  changes  it  was  presented  again  in  1911  and  duly  enacted 
into  law.  This  code  eliminated  the  contradictions  and  obscur- 
ities of  the  old  educational  legislation,  and  gave  the  state  a 
school  law  both  simple  and  progressive.  It  made  provision 
for  agricultural,  industrial,  and  other  forms  of  vocational 
education,  made  minor  advances  in  the  attendance  require- 
ments, and  established  compulsory  medical  inspection.  A 
State  Board  of  Education  of  six  members  was  created;  the 
board  members  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor,  to  serve  with- 
out pay,  and  half  the  number  always  to  be  experienced  educat- 
ors. The  governor  appointed  as  the  first  board  of  education 
the  gentlemen  who  had  drawn  up  the  code  and  labored  so 
faithfully  for  its  adoption,  thus  insuring  a  sympathetic  in- 
terest in  the  new  educational  program.  There  followed  rapidly 
other  legislation  touching  the  interests  of  working  children. 
Almost  at  once  it  was  made  obligatory  upon  districts  to  es- 
tablish elementary  evening  schools  for  children  above  fourteen 
who  were  employed  during  the  day,  provided  parents  of 
twenty-five  or  more  prospective  pupils  made  application  for 
the  same.^*  Districts  were  also  required  to  provide  manual 
training  evening  schools  on  petition  of  seventy-five  or  more 
taxpayers. 

Two  years  later  legislation  was  enacted  defining  vocational, 
industrial,  and  agricultural  education,  and  providing  state  aid 
up  to  two-thirds  of  the  sum  spent  by  any  district  *'for  in- 
struction in  practical  subjects  and  in  such  related  technical 
and  academic  subjects  as  may  be  necessary  to  complete  well- 
rounded  courses  of  training.  "^^  The  work  was  required  to  be 
given  in  approved  industrial  schools  or  departments,  and  the 
state  aid  received  by  any  one  district  could  not  exceed  five 
thousand  dollars.  Within  a  year  the  board  was  able  to  put 
state-aided  work  under  way  in  twenty-one  districts,  distributed 

84.  Laws,  1911,  No.  401. 

85.  Laws,  1913,  No.  138. 


PENNSYLVANIA  191 

among  one-fourth  the  counties  of  the  state.*®  Three  types  of 
industrial  schools  were  supported,  day,  evening,  and  part-time 
or  continuation  schools.^^ 

The  same  legislature  which  inaugurated  state  support  of  in- 
dustrial education  defeated  a  bill  intended  to  afford  more  ad- 
equate protection  to  working  children.  Perhaps  it  more  than 
redeemed  itself,  however,  by  enacting  a  law  which  provided 
for  a  complete  reorganization  of  the  methods  of  administering 
the  industrial  laws  of  the  state.  A  Department  of  Labor  and 
Industry  was  created,  having  as  its  head  a  Commissioner  of 
Labor  and  Industry  ^viih.  four  associates,  one  an  employer,  one 
a  wage  earner,  and  one  a  woman,  all  appointed  by  the  governor 
for  terms  of  four  years,  and  constituting  an  Industrial  Board. 
This  board  was  given  power  to  investigate  industrial  condi- 
tions, to  enforce  the  laws  relating  to  the  department,  to  make 
and  enforce  rules  and  regulations  for  the  application  of  these 
laws,  and  to  determine  standards  within  the  limits  of  the  law, 
for  particular  industries.^^  Within  the  department  are  the 
necessary  bureaus  including  a  bureau  of  factory  inspection. 
At  its  organization,  provisions  were  made  for  fifty-eight  in- 
spectors, women,  physicians,  and  engineers  being  included  in 
the  number.  The  state  is  divided  into  suitable  districts,  and 
the  inspectors  are  under  orders  to  ^isit,  as  frequently  as  pos- 
sible, all  places  where  labor,  subject  to  state  control  is 
employed. 

Three  measures,  enacted  in  the  spring  of  1915,  served  to 
round  out  the  system  of  industrial  education,  adding  the  com- 
pulsory feature  essential  to  any  scheme  intended  to  reach  and 
hold  children  obliged  to  leave  the  regular  day  school  for  em- 
ployment. One  of  these  laws  created  a  bureau  of  vocational 
education  within  the  Department  of  Public  instruction,  pro- 
adding  for  two  divisions,  one  of  agricultural  and  one  of  in- 
dustrial education.*^  Secondly,  a  State  Employment  Bureau 
was  created  within  the  department  of  labor  and  industry. 
This  bureau,  through  its  central  office  at  the  capitol  and  its 


86.  Bpt.  Supt.  Tub.  Inst.,  1914,  p.  7. 

87.  Ibid. 

88.  Laws,  1913,  No.  267. 

89.  Laws,  1915,  No.  162. 


192      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

branch  offices,  is  to  cooperate  with  bureaus  of  vocational  train- 
ing and  placement  which  may  be  established  by  local  educa- 
tional authorities  in  the  interests  of  children  between  fourteen 
and  sixteen  years  of  age.  Directors  of  branch  bureaus  are  re- 
quired by  law  to  provide  for  the  registration  of  children,  to 
assist  them  in  the  selection  of  suitable  vocations,  and  to  co- 
operate with  school  principals  in  their  proper  placement. 

The  third  measure,  the  one  of  chief  significance,  is  known  as 
the  Cox  child  labor  law.  It  is  an  advanced  piece  of  legislation 
bringing  Pennsylvania  into  position  to  assume  leadership 
among  the  states  distinguished  for  the  protection  and  school- 
ing of  their  children.  It  includes  in  its  requirements  the  most 
efficient  methods  of  certificating  working  children  and  of  pro- 
tecting them  in  employment  and  provides  that  all  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen  must  attend  continuation  classes  for  at 
least  eight  hours  a  week  during  the  time  the  public  schools 
are  in  session.^°  In  almost  every  respect  the  law  met  the  stand- 
ards then  set  by  the  ideal  child  labor  law;  it  also  recognized 
more  clearly  than  is  usually  the  case  the  common  problems  of 
school  and  industry.  Following  are  some  of  the  most  import- 
ant provisions: 

1.  The  act  does  not  apply  to  children  employed  in  agricul- 
ture or  domestic  service. 

2.  Children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  may  not  be  em- 
ployed in  industry  other  than  agriculture  or  domestic  service 
unless  they  attend  school  during  that  period  for  eight  hours 
per  week,  or  for  a  time  equivalent  to  eight  hours  per  week, 
for  the  time  the  public  schools  are  in  session.^^ 

3.  Hours  of  labor  for  such  children  may  not  exceed  nine 
per  day  nor  fifty-one  per  week,  including  the  eight  hours  de- 
voted to  schooling. 

4.  Prerequisite  to  employment  is  an  employment  certificate 
issued  by  the  school  authorities  to  children  who  have  finished 
the  sixth  grade  in  school,  who  present  a  written  promise  of 
employment,  adequate  proof  of  age,  and  who,  by  a  careful 
medical  examination  at  the  hands  of  a  physician  employed  by 
the  school  board,  are  found  physically  fit  for  the  employment 

90.  Ibid.,  No.  177. 

91.  Before  a  child  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  may  leave  school  to  engage 
in  farm  or  domestic  employment,  he  must  secure  from  the  local  board  of 
education  a  leaving  permit  which  is  granted  only  on  condition  that  he  has 
completed  the  first  six  grades. 


PENNSYLVANIA  193 

proposed.  The  certificate  must  be  sent  to  the  employer  by  the 
issuing  officer  through  the  mail,  and  at  termination  of  employ- 
ment must  be  returned  in  the  same  manner  to  the  office  of  issue. 

5.  Vacation  employment  certificates  may  be  issued,  but 
under  precisely  the  same  conditions  as  regular  certificates  ex- 
cept that  the  school  record  is  not  required. 

6.  Employment  dangerous  to  health  or  morals  is  forbidden. 

7.  No  boy  under  sixteen  and  no  female  minor  may  be  em- 
ployed before  six  in  the  morning  or  after  eight  in  the  evening. 

8.  The  required  schooling  may  be  obtained  in  any  school 
approved  by  the  state  superintendent  and  designated  by  the 
local  board  of  school  directors.  It  must  be  within  reasonable 
access  of  the  place  of  employment,  and  the  school  hours  must 
not  be  earlier  than  eight  in  the  morning  nor  later  than  five 
in  the  afternoon,  nor  on  Saturday. 

9.  In  case  there  is  not  effective  enforcement  of  the  school- 
ing requirements  in  any  district,  the  state  superintendent  is  to 
report  to  the  state  board  of  education ;  this  body  is  then  author- 
ized to  appoint  attendance  officers  in  the  delinquent  district, 
enforce  the  law,  and  charge  the  salary  and  expenses  of  the 
officers  to  the  district,  such  sum  being  deducted  from  the  dis- 
trict's apportionment  of  state  school  funds. 

10.  The  commissioner  of  labor  and  industry  and  his  in- 
spectors, the  attendance  officers  of  the  various  districts,  and 
local  police  are  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  the  law. 

11.  The  penalty  for  violation  is  a  fine  of  not  less  than  ten 
nor  more  than  two  hundred  dollars,  imprisonment  for  not 
more  than  ten  days,  or  both  fine  and  imprisonment  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  court. 

There  was,  of  course,  considerable  opposition  to  the  passage 
of  this  law,  wdth  prophecy  as  to  its  dire  effects  upon  the  work- 
ing child,  upon  those  dependent  upon  his  earnings,  and  upon 
industry.  The  new  requirements  were  not  to  become  operative 
until  the  first  of  January,  1916,  allowing  child-employing  in- 
dustries three-fourths  of  a  year  to  readjust  themselves.  Many 
manufacturers,  accustomed  to  the  ten  hour  day,  held  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  employ  children  for  nine  hours  while 
adults  continued  for  the  ten  hour  shift,  and  as  a  result  30,000 
or  40,000  children  would  be  thrown  out  of  employment  on  the 
first  of  January,  1916.  Some  employers  did  not  wait  for  the 
end  of  the  year,  but  began  to  discharge  children,  filling  their 
places  with  workers  above  sixteen  years  of  age.  It  was  held 
that  thousands  of  children  who  had  secured  working  papers 


194   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

under  the  old  law  but  who  had  not  completed  the  first  six 
grades  of  the  elementary  school  would  now  be  forced  to  give 
up  their  positions  and  attend  the  common  schools  already  over- 
crowded and  poorly  prepared  to  serve  the  needs  of  these  young 
workers  who  would  naturally  come  unwillingly  to  the  enforced 


To  the  last  objection  final  answer  was  soon  given  by  the 
Attorney  General,  who  ruled  that  the  law  was  not  retroactive ; 
that  minors  who  had  secured  employment  certificates  prior  to 
January  1,  1916,  held  valid  permission  to  work  and  that 
whether  they  had  met  the  new  educational  requirement  or  not 
they  might  legally  continue  in  employment  provided  they  at- 
tended the  continuation  school  until  sixteen  years  of  age.®^ 

Some  communities  did  not  take  the  law  seriously  and  made 
no  preparation  to  care  for  employed  children.®^  Some  held 
that  the  continuation  school  was  not  mandatory  and  delayed 
action  until  they  found  that  they  were  liable  to  lose  their  share 
of  the  state  school  fund  by  non-compliance.®*  But  as  the  time 
approached  for  the  law  to  go  into  effect  the  opposition  tended 
to  decrease.  Many  employers  prepared  to  have  the  continu- 
ation classes  held  in  suitable  rooms  in  their  own  plants,  and 
school  men  grew  more  enthusiastic  in  their  support.®^  The 
governor  of  the  state,  long  distinguished  as  a  wise  and  pro- 
gressive educator,  supported  the  new  educational  program  en- 
thusiastically, saying: 

''I  have  given  years  of  thought  to  the  problem  of  providing 
a  type  of  education  which  will  enable  the  youthful  toilers  of 
this  great  commonwealth  to  learn  while  they  earn.  The  result 
of  that  thought  and  investigation  is  embodied  in  this  child 
labor  law.''»« 

He  used  his  influence  among  school  authorities,  employers, 
and  employees  to  the  end  that  there  might  be  cooperation  of 
all  forces  in  a  program  which  would  give  the  state,  he  said, 

92.  Opinion  rendered  Oct.  26,  1915;  supplemented  and  enlarged  Nov.  4, 
1915. 

93.  Tittsburg  Tost,  Feb.  2,  1916;  editorial. 

94.  Beaver  Falls  Tribune,  Nov.  9,  1915. 

95.  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger,  Nov.  2,  1915. 

96.  Letter;  Gov.  Martin  Brumbaugh,  Hanover  Herald,  Nov.  10,  1915. 


PENNSYLVANIA  195 

''an  industrial    impetus  which   will  be    felt  through    all  the 
generations  to  come/' 

The  state  board  of  education  was  given  large  power  in 
carrying  out  the  educational  pro\dsions  of  the  law.  The  duty 
of  organizing  and  supervising  the  continuation  schools  was 
confided  by  the  board  to  the  industrial  division  of  the  vocation- 
al bureau,  which,  for  the  guidance  of  the  districts,  issued  a 
bulletin  containing  a  copy  of  the  child  labor  act,  a  careful  ex- 
planation of  its  provisions,  together  with  interpretations  of 
certain  points  likely  to  be  misunderstood  and  the  requirements 
of  the  state  board  in  relation  to  the  continuation  schools.®^  It 
was  made  clear  that  such  schools  were  to  be  obligatory  upon 
all  school  districts  in  the  state  in  which  minors  between  four- 
teen and  sixteen  were  employed  in  other  than  agricultural  and 
domestic  seridce.  The  board  ruled,  however,  that  a  district  on 
request  might  be  relieved  temporarily  of  the  necessity  of  es- 
tablishing a  continuation  school  if  it  was  shown  that  less  than 
twenty  children  were  eligible  to  attend.®^ 

By  the  terms  of  the  law  of  1913  a  continuation  school  ap- 
proved by  the  state  board  might  secure  generous  state  aid.  The 
provisions  of  this  law  as  applied  by  the  board  to  the  new 
schools  made  it  possible  for  a  district  to  receive  from  one 
hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  dollars  for  each  teacher 
employed  in  these  schools,  as  well  as  fifty  per  cent  per  year 
of  the  actual  cost  of  the  equipment  necessary  to  carry  forward 
the  academic  work,  provided  that  no  district  might  receive 
over  three  thousand  dollars. 

After  every  effort  had  been  made  to  prepare  the  state  for 
the  enforcement  of  the  child  labor  law  and  to  win  the  co- 
operation of  those  most  directly  affected  by  it,  there  remained 
considerable  opposition  in  industrial  centers.®^  But  on  the 
whole  there  was  a  feeling  of  pride  in  the  inauguration  of  one 
of  the  most  progressive  labor  and  schooling  laws  to  be  found 
at  that  time  in  America,  so  the  new  requirements  were  met, 
as  a  rule,  in  excellent  spirit.    In  many  industrial  centers  con- 


97.  Bulletin  5,  Burea/u  of  Vocational  Education. 

98.  Ibid.,  p.  13. 

99.  Editorials  in  Pittslurg  Sun,  Jan.  28,  1916,  and  Pittsburg  Dispatch, 
Jan.  31,  1916,  are  typical. 


196      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

tinuation  schools  were  opened  promptly;  during  the  month  of 
January,  1916,  one  hundred  and  four  districts  put  the  work 
under  way  with  more  than  four  hundred  classes  in  operation.^^^ 
At  the  end  of  the  school  year  the  bureau  on  vocational  educa- 
tion could  report:  '*We  have  over  three  hundred  and  fifty-one 
continuation  schools,  attended  by  over  thirty-five  thousand 
children.  These  [schools]  have  proved  successful  beyond 
expectation.  "^•^^ 

It  was  the  desire  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  to  have 
such  an  adjustment  of  work  in  the  continuation  schools  that 
sixty  per  cent  of  the  time  could  be  devoted  to  vocational  sub- 
jects and  the  remainder  to  academic  branches.^"^  It  was  not 
found  practical,  however,  to  give  so  much  emphasis  to  the 
vocational  side.  A  large  proportion  of  the  working  children 
had  left  school  while  in  the  lower  grades.^^^  Many  of  foreign 
parentage  had  lost  the  little  English  learning  they  possessed 
when  they  secured  their  employment  certificate  under  the  old 
law.^°*  After  the  first  half-year  *s  experience,  therefore,  it  was 
deemed  best  to  emphasize  general  rather  than  specific  training 
until  the  operation  of  the  law  brings  the  minimum  in  academic 
attainment  up  to  the  completion,  at  least,  of  the  six  elementary 
grades.^^''  It  is  not  intended,  however,  that  the  work  in  these 
schools  will  tend  to  conform  with  that  usually  given  in  the 
regular  day  schools.  It  is  expected  that  there  will  be  much 
shop  work,  that  vocational  information  will  be  given  in  con- 
nection with  both  shop  and  academic  work,  and  that  pupils 
will  be  led  ultimately  to  an  intelligent  choice  of  trade  or 
calling. 

The  city  of  Pittsburg  may  be  taken  as  representing,  perhaps, 
the  best  that  Pennsylvania  has  accomplished  thus  far  in  the 
administration  of  the  new  laws.  In  some  respects  the  work 
here  is  doubtless  in  advance  of  that  to  be  found  in  other  cities 
of  the  state.  The  records  show  that  for  several  years  the  child 
labor  and  compulsory  school  attendance  laws  have  been  en- 


100.  Monongahela  Times^  Feb.  5,  1916. 

101.  Bulletin  No.  8,  Bureau  of  Vocational  Education,  p.  8. 

102.  Bulletin  No.  5,  Bureau  of  Vocational  Education,  p.  16ff. 

103.  Ibid.,  No.  8,  p.  17. 

104.  Ibid.,  p.  36. 

105.  Ibid.,  p.  17. 


PENNSYLVANIA  197 

forced  with  considerable  vigor.  From  30,000  to  50,000  cases 
of  irregular  attendance  have  been  investigated  annually  since 
1911.^^®  An  excellent  system  of  home  and  shop  visitation  has 
been  in  operation,  offending  parents  have  been  prosecuted, 
courts  have  sustained  the  truant  officers  and  inspectors,  and 
children  of  school  age  have  had  relatively  little  opportunity 
to  avoid  the  somewhat  meager  requirements  of  the  law.^°^ 
School  officials,  moreover,  were  prepared  to  receive  the  new 
law  cordially,  for  they  had  been  urging  legislation  of  this 
character  most  earnestly. ^^^  The  city  had  already  established 
industrial  and  continuation  education  of  various  kinds,  and 
only  awaited  a  compulsory  continuation  law  to  extend  its 
benefits  to  all  working  children.  Early  preparation  was  made, 
therefore,  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  new  law.  In  Janu- 
ary, 1916,  additional  continuation  classes  were  organized,  both 
in  school  buildings  and  in  quarters  provided  by  employers, 
though  attendance  was  not  strictly  enforced  until  late  in  May, 
practically  five  months  being  allowed  for  employers  to  adjust 
themselves  to  the  new  conditions.^"^  At  first,  vacant  rooms  in 
various  buildings  were  utilized,  and  continuation  classes  were 
organized  in  about  sixty  different  centers  with  two  half-day 
sessions  per  week  for  each  child  as  the  prevailing  time  distribu- 
tion. Later  one  large  building  was  set  aside  as  a  central  con- 
tinuation school.  Here  approximately  twelve  hundred  children 
can  be  accommodated  each  week.  There  are  administrative 
offices,  shops,  and  laboratories,  the  latter  being  only  moderate- 
ly well  equipped. 

The  attendance  officer,  to  whom  the  task  of  issuing  employ- 
ment certificates  is  assigned,  has  his  office  in  this  building,  so 
each  child  seeking  working  papers  must  come  here,  accom- 
panied by  his  parents."^  Before  an  employment  certificate  is 
issued  the  principal  of  the  continuation  school  talks  with  the 
child  and  endeavors  to  persuade  him  to  continue  in  the  regular 

106.  Pittslurg  School  Beport,  1912,  p.  13;  1914,  pp.  32-33,  39. 

107.  For  illustration,  ibid,  1914,  pp.  86-87. 

108.  Hid.,  1914,  p.  89. 

109.  See  Pittsburg  Sun,  May  2;  Pittsburg  Press,  May  26,  1916. 

110.  The  law  does  not  require  that  a  parent  appear  with  a  child  who  is 
applying  for  an  employment  certificate;  this  is  an  additional  safeguard 
imposed  by  the  local  school  authorities. 


198      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

full-time  schools,  unless  it  appears  that  economic  necessity  is 
forcing  employment.  If  the  child  must  go  to  work,  an  attempt 
is  made  to  adjust  his  schooling  as  closely  as  possible  to  his 
vocational  needs.  A  vocational  guidance  secretary  has  a  desk 
in  the  office  of  the  principal.  This  officer  keeps  in  close  touch 
with  the  business  houses  employing  children  and  is  prepared 
to  direct  those  who  need  employment  into  the  most  desirable 
of  available  positions. 

The  work  of  the  continuation  schools  in  Pittsburg  is  not  yet 
fully  standardized,  nor  is  it  carried  forward  under  ideal  con- 
ditions. The  outstanding  fact  is  that  many  hundreds  of  boys 
and  girls  who  under  conditions  prevailing  before  1916  would 
be  entirely  separated  from  all  educational  influences  are  now 
spending  eight  hours  a  week  in  school  under  trained  and  en- 
thusiastic teachers,  in  work  which,  though  often  rather  re- 
motely, touches  in  some  respects  either  the  actual  employment 
in  which  they  are  engaged  or  the  prospective  vocation  of  adult 
life."^ 

There  is  little  difficulty  in  enforcing  the  attendance  law  so 
far  as  it  relates  to  the  employment  certificate  children.  The 
record  made  in  school  is  considered  by  the  employer,  and 
irregularity  or  misconduct,  if  at  all  serious,  would  result  in  dis- 
missal from  work.  This,  under  the  law,  would  throw  the  child 
back  into  the  regular  day  schools,  a  fate  which  the  average 
boy,  once  having  gone  to  work,  is  not  able  to  contemplate 
cheerfully.  In  a  word,  the  continuation  school  in  Pittsburg  is 
a  success.  Pupils  are  accepting  its  requirements  in  a  finer 
spirit  than  is  usually  shown  by  those  in  the  elementary  schools. 
While  ideal  cooperation  between  labor  and  education  is  not 
possible,  due  to  the  fact  that  few  are  in  employment  that  can 
be  considered  as  in  any  sense  permanent,  yet  the  majority  of 

111.  In  the  great  industrial  city  of  Pittsburg  one  might  expect  to  find 
many  boys  at  work  in  various  capacities  in  the  trades  or  industries  which 
later  will  claim  their  adult  services.  But  it  is  not  the  case.  Few  are  so 
employed.  An  examination  of  the  card  files  in  the  office  of  the  principal 
of  continuation  schools  reveals  the  fact  that  only  an  occasional  lad  is 
learning  a  trade,  most  being  engaged  as  errand  or  office  boys,  drivers, 
unskilled  workers,  or  in  other  occupations  having  no  outlook  into  "the  future. 
It  is  expected  that  with  the  development  of  the  system  of  vocational  educa- 
tion, this  unfortunate  condition  will  be  overcome,  at  least  in  part. 


PENNSYLVANIA  199 

those  primarily  interested  are  in  favor  of  the  child  labor  law 
and  are  supporting  the  schools.^^^ 

Throughout  the  state  the  law  has  groAvn  in  favor  as  its  value 
has  become  more  apparent.  Notwithstanding  the  prophecy  that 
thousands  of  needy  children  would  be  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment, there  were  on  July  1,  1916,  as  many  minors  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen  employed  in  the  various  industries  as 
there  were  before  the  law  became  effective.^^^  There  remains 
relatively  little  opposition  to  the  continuation  school,  some  of 
those  who  at  first  thought  they  could  not  adjust  themselves  to 
its  program  being  now  enthusiastic  in  its  support.  Some  em- 
ployers make  no  deduction  in  wages  for  time  spent  in  school ; 
others  have  offered  higher  wages,  promotion,  or  other  recogni- 
tion for  high  class  work  in  school.^^*  At  least  ninety  con- 
tinuation schools  were  in  operation  during  the  school  year 
1920-1921,  with  an  attendance  of  about  14,500."^     State  and 


112.  In  May,  1917,  Associate  Superintendent  Baker  wrote  to  all  employers 
of  continuation  school  children  asking  for  opinions  as  to  the  value  of  the 
work  done  ani  inviting  suggestions  for  its  improvement.  The  writer  had 
opportunity  to  read  the  replies.  In  general,  employers  expressed  themselves 
as  well  satisfied,  the  follo^-ing  replies  from  manufacturers  being  fairly 
typical : 

^ '  Personally,  I  consider  the  continuation  school  one  of  the  greatest  propo- 
sitions the  present  board  ever  worked  out.'' 

"We  have  seen  a  distinct  improvement  in  our  employees  who  have  at- 
tended or  are  attending  the  continuation  school." 

**  Those  who  are  working  and  attending  the  continuation  schools  are  far 
superior  to  those  who  do  not  attend.'' 

*' Continuation  school  is  very  much  all  recht." 

A  few  were  hostile  to  the  entire  program.    Three  replies  are  selected: 

**  Judging  from  the  boys  we  have  employed,  the  time  and  expense  of 
maintaining  the  continuation  school  is  thrown  away." 

'*They  were  just  wasting  their  time." 

**Not  well  impressed  with  the  work  done." 

A  few  of  the  dissatisfied  employers  suggested  night  attendance  as  a  solu- 
tion. Specific  suggestions  for  improvement  were  not  infrequent,  among 
them  being:  more  work  in  common  branches,  practical  business 
methods,  knowledge  of  the  city,  better  hand-writing,  mechanical  drawing, 
more  mathematics,  more  academic  work,  more  manual  training,  knowledge 
of  means  and  methods  of  transportation,  knowledge  of  statutes,  courtesy, 
honesty,  obedience,  cleanliness,  health  and  sanitation. 

113.  Bulletin,  Bureau  of  Vocational  Education,  No.  8,  p.  18. 

114.  lUd.,  pp.  19,  46. 

115.  Personal  report,  Attendance  Bureau,  Mar.  17,  1921.  Several  other 
cities  which,  under  the  law,  would  be  required  to  maintain  continuation 
schools  were  unable  to  secure  approved  teachers.  In  some  communities  in 
which  there  are  fewer  than  twenty  employed  children  continuation  classes 
are  voluntarily  provided  and  working  children  required  to  attend;  for 
example,  Homestead. 


200   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

national  funds,  the  latter  administered  under  the  provisions 
of  the  Smith-Hughes  law,  relieve  the  local  financial  burden  to 
an  appreciable  extent. 

As  might  perhaps  be  expected,  the  continuation  classes  are 
quite  commonly  housed  in  old  buildings  poorly  adapted  to  the 
intended  purpose.^^*  This  is  most  unfortunate,  as  a  large  pro- 
portion of  these  children  leave  school  not  so  much  because  they 
must  contribute  to  the  family  earnings,  as  because  they  are 
weary  of  the  type  of  instruction  usually  prevailing  in  the 
elementary  schools.  The  few  hours  which  they  spend  each 
week  under  the  influences  of  the  continuation  school  should  be 
spent  in  an  environment  as  attractive  and  inspiring  as  it  can 
be  made.  There  seems  to  be  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the 
cities  visited  to  provide  more  generously  for  these  children. 
It  is  probably  that,  as  plans  are  made  for  the  construction  of 
junior  high  school  buildings,  the  needs  of  continuation  classes 
will  be  given  adequate  consideration.^^^ 

In  the  enforcement  of  her  general  compulsory  attendance 
laws  throughout  the  state,  Pennsylvania  is  only  now  moving 
in  the  direction  of  efficiency.  The  legal  requirements,  not 
radically  modified  since  the  enactment  of  the  original  law  in 
1895,  are  as  follows: 

1.  All  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  sixteen  must 
attend  a  day  school  where  the  common  English  branches  are 
being  taught  in  the  English  language. 

2.  Attendance  must  be  for  the  entire  time  during  which 
the  public  schools  are  in  session,  except  that  in  districts  of 
the  fourth  class  the  local  board  may  reduce  the  period  of  com- 
pulsory attendance  for  children  above  twelve  years  of  age  to 
not  less  than  seventy  per  cent  of  the  full  term. 

3.  Children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen,  having  completed 
the  sixth  grade  of  the  elementary  schools,  may  secure  the 
general  employment  certificates  as  already  described  or  the 
permits  to  engage  in  agricultural  or  domestic  labor.  These 
certificates  are  issued  by  the  school  authorities. 

4.  Enforcement  of  the  attendance  laws  rests  upon  the  local 
boards  of  education.  Boards  in  all  but  fourth  class  districts 
are  required  to  employ  one  or  more  attendance  officers,  two  or 
more  districts  uniting  for  this  purpose  if  they  see  fit.    An  at- 


116.  A  condition  by  no  means  peculiar  to  Pennsylvania. 

117.  Lancaster,  for  example,  is  looking  definitely  to  such  solution. 


PENNSYLVANIA  201 

tendance  officer  must  have  an  education  equivalent,  at  least, 
to  the  work  of  the  first  eight  grades  of  the  public  schools. 

5.  The  penalty  upon  a  parent  who  fails  to  keep  his  child 
in  school  according  to  law  is,  for  the  first  offense,  a  fine  of  two 
dollars  and  costs,  for  subsequent  offenses,  five  dollars  and  costs. 
In  case  of  default  of  payment,  the  parent  may  be  committed 
to  jail  for  a  period  not  in  excess  of  five  days. 

6,  Any  school  official,  who  wilfully  refuses  to  comply  with 
the  compulsory  attendance  provisions  is  liable  to  a  fine  of  not 
to  exceed  twenty-five  dollars.  If  the  board  of  education  fails 
to  enforce  the  law,  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
may  withhold  part  or  all  of  the  districts*  share  in  the  state 
appropriations.^^® 

Up  to  the  year  1920  the  state  did  not  seriously  attempt  to 
secure  the  enforcement  of  the  attendance  law.  In  the  pre- 
ceding pages  it  is  made  clear  that  the  degree  in  which  children 
w^ere  kept  in  school  depended  entirely  upon  the  local  author- 
ities, usually  upon  the  zeal  of  the  superintendent  of  schools. 
Enforcement  of  the  child  labor  laws  has  been  reasonably  ef- 
fective for  several  years,  and  in  the  majority  of  well-organized 
city  districts  school  attendance  has  been  good.  As  appears  to 
be  almost  universally  the  ease,  however,  there  was  serious 
neglect  of  the  law  in  the  country  and  in  the  smaller  cities  and 
towns,  as  well  as  in  some  of  the  larger  industrial  centers.  The 
Department  of  Education  has  now  entered  upon  a  serious  cam- 
paign to  secure  the  operation  of  the  law  in  every  part  of  the 
state.  Without  additional  legal  machinery,  but  largely  by 
means  of  administrative  powers  given  it  under  the  law,  the 
State  Board  of  Education  has  provided  for  a  Bureau  of  At- 
tendance with  a  director,  an  office  force  and  five  *' supervisors 
of  attendance,'*  four  being  women.^^®  A  system  of  monthly 
reports  from  every  school  in  the  state  has  been  inaugurated, 
the  New  York  plan  being  followed  in  many  respects.  These 
reports  are  filed  in  the  office  at  Harrisburg,  are  studied  by  the 
director  and  supervisors  of  attendance,  and  districts  which 


118.  This  power  is  used  very  sparingly.  The  writer  has  been  able  to  leam 
of  but  one  instance  in  which  it  has  been  applied,  a  case  in  Erie  county  in 
which  the  sum  of  $13,000.00  was  withheld:  ^^Commonwealth  vs.  M.  T. 
Wilkins. ' ' 

119.  The  director  of  this  Bureau  is  Mr.  W.  M.  Denison,  for  some  time  one 
of  the  State  School  Inspectors,  widely  known  throughout  Pennsylvania  and 
closely  in  touch  with  educational  conditions. 


202      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

appear  to  require  special  assistance  are  visited.^^^  No  definite 
data  are  yet  available  indicating  the  number  of  children  which 
the  new  method  of  promoting  attendance  has  brought  into  the 
schools,  but  public  interest  has  been  aroused  as  never  before 
and  the  supervisors  of  attendance  are  confident  that  very- 
valuable  results  have  already  been  accomplished.  A  consider- 
able amount  of  extra  clerical  work  is  thrown  upon  the  teachers 
and  school  officials  who  are  required  to  make  the  monthly  re- 
ports. This  is  resented  somewhat,  especially  by  the  superin- 
tendents in  the  larger  places,  where  the  need  of  state  assist- 
ance is  not  felt,  yet  the  evils  of  non-attendance  are  so  clearly 
recognized  that  practically  all  have  accepted  the  additional 
burden  and  have  engaged  in  a  campaign  of  child  accounting 
state-wide  in  extent.^^^ 

Pennsylvania  admirably  illustrates  in  her  own  educational 
development  the  three  periods  into  which  the  history  of  the 
public  control  and  education  of  children  divides  itself  and  to 
which  reference  has  been  made  in  an  earlier  section  of  this 
study.^22  Though  the  proprietary  founder  of  the  colony  held 
advanced  ideas  as  to  the  function  of  the  state  in  education,  the 
early  systems  of  schools  were  parochial  and  philanthropic. 
When  public  funds  began  to  be  used  in  support  of  education 
they  were  applied  solely  to  the  maintenance  of  pauper  schools. 
Public  interest  in  the  working  child  began  to  manifest  itself 
here  in  the  earlier  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  pro- 
tective measures  were  ineffective  and  compulsory  school  at- 
tendance was  not  even  attempted  until  well  after  most  of  the 
other  northern  states  had  their  educational  programs  well 
under  way.  Yet  notwithstanding  delays  due  to  peculiar  social 
conditions,  and  obstructions  deliberately  placed  in  the  way  of 
progress  by  industrial  interests,  Pennsylvania  has  entered  upon 
the  third  stage  of  universal  and  compulsory  education  with  a 
system  which  requires  only  honest,  fearless  administration  to 
give  to  the  state  a  position  of  leadership. 

120.  Between  Sept.  1,  1920,  and  Mar.  1,  1921,  visits  to  the  number  of  420 
were  made. 

121.  Only  two  district  superintendents  in  the  entire  state  have  failed  to  file 
reports  as  requested. 

122.  Introduction,  p.  2. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
WISCONSIN 

Prior  to  the  year  1909  there  is  little  in  the  history  of  her 
educational  and  industrial  development  to  warrant  including 
Wisconsin  in  a  group  of  states  selected  for  such  a  study  as  this. 
But  in  that  year  a  growing  recognition  of  the  intimate  and 
helpful  relations  which  might  be  developed  between  the  school 
and  the  life  work  of  the  child  led  to  the  establishment  of  an 
educational  policy  which,  within  a  few  years,  made  Wisconsin 
a  leader  in  the  task  of  preparing  working  boys  and  girls  for 
industrial  activities.  She  preceded  every  other  state  in  the 
inauguration  of  a  comprehensive  system  of  compulsory  con- 
tinuation or  part-time  schools  for  working  children;  she  has 
adapted  her  educational  program  to  changing  industrial  con- 
ditions more  promptly  and  more  successfully  than  has  any 
other  commonwealth.  A  consideration,  therefore,  of  the  com- 
pulsory features  of  education  in  Wisconsin  may  well  be  em- 
braced in  this  study. 

The  early  educational  history  of  Wisconsin  is  not  essentially 
different  from  that  of  the  other  states  of  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory. In  the  year  1837  a  law  was  enacted  providing  for  com- 
pulsory schools  in  every  township  in  which  as  many  as  twenty 
electors  had  taken  residence.^  For  the  support  of  these  terri- 
torial schools  a  pro-rata  tax  was  levied  upon  patrons,  but  the 
children  of  all  unable  to  pay  the  rates  were  to  be  maintained 
in  school  by  means  of  a  general  tax.  In  the  year  1849  the 
sj'Stem  of  common  schools  was  reorganized  under  the  state 
constitution  adopted  two  years  earlier.  Schools  were  now  com- 
pulsory and  free  throughout  the  state. 

The  state  system  of  free  schools  was  scarcely  under  way  be- 
fore the  questions  of  irregularity  and  lack  of  attendance  began 
to  disturb  those  charged  with  its  administration.  Superin- 
tendent L3mian  C.  Draper,  deploring  the  indifference  of  both 

1.  Bpt.  Wis.  St.  Hist.  Soc.y  p.  338. 

203 


204      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

parents  and  children  to  the  means  of  education,  suggested  com- 
pulsory school  legislation  as  a  remedy,  but  added:  **The  idea 
of  compulsory  measures  to  secure  more  general  attendance  is 
not  exactly  suited  to  the  genius  of  our  free  government.  "^ 

For  more  than  a  decade,  beginning  about  the  opening  of 
the  Civil  War,  state  superintendents  vied  with  each  other  in 
reciting  the  lamentable  state  of  ignorance  into  which  the  youth 
of  Wisconsin  were  falling.  For  example,  in  1861  Superintend- 
ent J.  L.  Pickard  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  children  of  proper  school  age  were  receiving 
no  instruction  except  that  provided  by  the  **  school  of  the 
street,  a  school  in  which  every  lesson  is  at  war  with  the  vital 
interests  of  our  people,  in  which  pupils  make  rapid  progress 
in  disobedience  to  parents,  prevarication,  falsehood,  obscenity, 
profanity,  lewdness,  intemperance,  petty  thievery,  larceny, 
burglary,  robbery,  and  murder,  whose  graduates  become  a 
prey  upon  the  citizen  and  a  constant  tax  upon  his  pocket.*** 

Though  Superintendent  Pickard  was  deeply  moved  by  the 
lack  of  regular  attendance,  he  did  not  urge  legislative  inter- 
ference. His  successor  in  office,  after  making  what  appears  to 
have  been  a  superficial  study  of  the  situation,  concluded  that 
of  those  who  might  reasonably  be  expected  to  attend  school,  at 
least  30,000  were  out  of  school  altogether,  while  less  than  half 
of  those  actually  registered  were  in  daily  attendance.*  To  him 
it  seemed  essential  that  teachers  of  higher  type  and  better 
training  be  secured  and  that  the  schools  be  made  more  attract- 
ive.*'' It  might  then  be  necessary  to  invoke  the  power  of  the 
law  in  order  to  bring  under  educational  influences  those  who 
remained  indifferent.  He,  in  common  with  many  other  school 
administrators  of  the  time,  regarded  laws  interfering  with 
parental  control  of  children  as  undemocratic,  yet  he  thought 
it  might  be  possible  to  enact  a  compulsory  attendance  law  that 
would  infringe  upon  the  rights  of  no  one.  On  this  point  he 
made  no  specific  recommendations,  saying: 

**That  those  who  advocate  compulsory  education  have  the 

2.  lOth.  An.  Upt,  Supt.  Sch.,  p.  6. 

3.  13th.  An.  Bpt.  Supt.  Pub.  Inst.,  p.  9. 

4.  19th.  An.  Bpt.  Supt.  Puh.  Inst.,  p.  11. 

5.  16th.  An.  Bpt.  Supt.  Puh.  Inst.,  p.  7. 


WISCONSIN  205 

best  interests  of  society  in  view,  there  is  no  reasonable  doubt. 
Whether  public  opinion  demands  enactments  that  shall  secure 
it  is  for  the  Legislature  to  consider."® 

Superintendent  A.  J.  Craig,  in  1869  estimated  that  100,000 
Wisconsin  children  were  receiving  no  instruction  in  the  schools. 
He  insisted  upon  legislative  action,  asserting  that  unless  laws 
were  forthcoming  which  would  secure  the  education  of  all  the 
children,  the  future  historian  would  be  forced  to  portray  **the 
downfall  of  a  once  mighty  nation  which  forgot  its  origin,  de- 
rided its  destiny,  sold  its  birthright,  and  ended  its  career  in 
shame  and  disgrace.  "'^ 

Governor  Lucius  Fairchild,  not  to  be  outdone  by  the  super- 
•intendent,  treated  the  subject  of  school  attendance  at  length, 
basing  his  statements  upon  the  figures  put  forward  by  the  de- 
partment of  education  and  arriving  at  the  same  dire  conclu- 
sions. He  demanded  that  the  legislature  take  the  matter  into 
consideration,  saying: 

**Is  it  not  our  duty  to  compel  the  parents  of  these  children 
to  give  them  the  advantages  of  some  school  system,  whereby 
they  may  be  rendered  fit  to  assume  the  duties  of  citizenship? 
Has  not  the  state  the  right  to  protect  itself  against  evils  which 
threaten  its  safety,  its  peace,  and  even  its  existence?"^ 

He  urged  the  enactment  of  **such  a  law  as  will  compel  each 
child  in  the  state,  of  proper  age,  under  ordinary  circumstances, 
to  attend  school  a  given  number  of  months  in  each  year  for  a 
reasonable  number  of  years."  In  his  message  the  following 
year,  the  governor  again  urged  the  legislature  to  enact  a  com- 
pulsory attendance  laAv,  holding  that  over  fifty  thousand 
children  were  growing  up  without  the  training  necessary  to 
make  them  intelligent,  useful  citizens.  Many  of  these,  he  says, 
in  consequence  of  their  ignorance,  *'will  be  vagabonds,  fitted 
only  for  prisons,  brothels,  and  poor-hoases.  "^ 

Mr.  Samuel  Fallows,  the  successor  of  Superintendent  Craig, 
took  a  much  less  radical  stand  on  the  question  of  school  at- 
tendance under  compulsion.    In  fact,  in  his  first  report  he  ad- 


6.  Ibid.,  p.  43. 

7.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1869,  p.  6. 

8.  Senate  Journal,  1870,  appendix,  p.  12. 

9.  Assembly  Journal,  1871,  appendix,  p.  18. 


206   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

vised  definitely  against  such  legislation.^^  But  before  the  end 
of  his  term  of  service  he  appears  to  have  modified  his  views, 
as  he  recommended  in  his  final  report  a  law  requiring  that 
every  child  should  receive  *4n  the  public  school  or  elsewhere 
at  least  the  elements  of  a  good  common  school  education.  "^^ 

A  bill  was  introduced  in  1873  providing  for  the  attendance 
at  public  school  of  all  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and 
fifteen  for  a  period  of  sixteen  weeks  each  year.  This  bill  was 
indefinitely  postponed,  but  a  resolution  was  adopted  asking  the 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  to  ''make  such  investiga- 
tion and  inquiries  as  he  may  deem  proper  in  relation  to  the 
best  means,  whether  compulsory  or  otherwise,  to  advance  the 
cause  of  education,  and  report  the  result  of  such  investigations 
to  the  next  legislature,  with  such  recommendations  as  he  may 
see  fit."^^  At  this  session  the  legislature  enacted  a  truancy 
law,  authorizing  cities  to  establish  truancy  schools,  to  which 
habitual  truants  having  no  lawful  occupation  might  be  com- 
mitted for  a  period  not  to  exceed  two  years.^^ 

The  investigation  made  by  the  superintendent  in  compliance 
with  the  legislative  resolution  does  not  supply  a  great  amount 
of  accurate  information  as  to  the  Wisconsin  situation.^*  Mr. 
Fallows  concluded  that  ''there  wxre  between  forty  and  fifty 
thousand  children  in  the  state  who  did  not  attend  school  dur- 
ing the  past  year."^^  In  closing  his  report  he  recommended 
a  compulsory  law  much  like  the  unenforceable  measure  adopted 
by  Michigan  in  1871  and  very  generally  copied  by  other  states 
and  territories  during  the  succeeding  decade.^^ 

At  this  period,  the  sharp  line  drawn  between  the  proponents 
and  opponents  of  compulsory  attendance  legislation  is  illustrat- 
ed on  the  one  hand  in  the  reports  and  recommendations  by 
Governor  Fairchild  and  Superintendents  Craig  and  Fallows, 
and  on  the  other  by  the  conclusions  of  Superintendent  Edward 

10.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1871,  p.  40. 

11.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1873,  p.  72. 

12.  See  also  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1873,  p.  31. 

13.  Laws  of  1873,  ch.  276. 

14.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1873,  pp.  33-72. 

15.  The  United  States  Census  of  1870  reports  for  Wisconsin  55,441  persons 
over  ten  years  of  age  unable  to  write. 

16.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1873,  p.  72. 


WISCONSIN  207 

Searing,  1874-1878."  The  latter  stood  firmly  against  the  com- 
pulsory movement  now  receiving  considerable  support,  giving 
very  definite  reasons  for  his  opposition.  He  held,  first  of  all, 
that  there  was  no  alarming  degree  of  illiteracy  in  the  state, 
calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  by  basing  their  conclusions 
upon  the  whole  number  of  youth  between  the  ages  of  four  and 
twenty,  his  predecessors  had  arrived  at  unwarranted  conclu- 
sions as  to  the  extent  of  non-attendance.  He  gave  little  credence 
to  available  statistics,  and  had  sought  unsuccessfully  to  ascer- 
tain the  real  facts.  From  the  incomplete  data  secured,  he  con- 
cluded, however,  "that  the  schools,  wherever  tolerably  ac- 
cessible, are  imparting  the  elements  of  instruction  to  nearly 
every  healthy  child  outside  the  cities  and  some  of  the  larger 
villages."  Contrary  to  the  argument  of  most  writers  of  the 
time,  Mr.  Searing  held  that  the  public  school  could  not  reach 
the  children  of  the  poor,  the  element  for  whom  compulsion  was 
particularly  urged.  Against  them,  he  said,  **  shame,  pride,  self- 
respect  close  and  double-lock  the  doors  of  the  public  schools.'* 
He  held  that  the  very  excellence  of  the  city  schools  attended 
by  the  children  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  intelligent  citizens, 
would  repel  the  poor  and  render  the  schools  of  little  service  to 
them,  saying,  *'The  w^retchedness  of  extreme  poverty  shuns 
companionship  with  better  fortunes,  as  owls  and  bats  shun  the 
light  of  day."i« 

After  arguing  that  the  state  was  not  yet  prepared  to  enforce 
school  attendance,  even  if  such  a  measure  were  desirable,  Mr. 
Searing  contended  that  there  was  in  a  compulsory  school  law 
something  **  essentially  opposed  to  the  genius  of  our  free  in- 
stitutions, something  essentially  un-American,*'  adding,  **The 
mere  consciousness  of  the  existence  of  a  law  compelling  the 
attendance  of  my  children  would  be  intolerable.  I  want  no 
statute  laws  telling  me  how  or  when  to  feed,  to  dress,  or  to 
educate  my  children."  Superintendent  Searing  adds  one  ele- 
ment to  the  discussion  not  yet  noticed  by  his  predecessors  in 
office  by  recognizing  child  labor  and  by  suggesting  a  method 
of  relief  far  in  advance  of  his  time: 


17.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1874,  pp.  liv-lxvii. 

18.  Ibid.,  p.  Ixvi. 


208   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

"If  cessation  from  productive  labor — even  though  childish 
labor — be  a  severe  physical  hardship,  during  the  months  and 
years  necessarily  devoted  to  the  acquisition  of  that  intelligence 
and  culture  which  fit  for  good  citizenship,  then  let  appropriate 
support  be  given  to  child  or  parent  by  the  society  or  state  that 
is  interested  in  the  intelligence  of  the  former/ *^^ 

Superintendent  Searing  put  himself  on  record  as  a  radical 
opponent  of  compulsory  education.  Doubtless,  he  was  regarded 
at  the  time  as  a  reactionary,  yet  in  certain  respects  he  was  de- 
cidedly progressive.  He  wished  to  have  education  adapted  to 
the  real  needs  of  the  children.  He  saw  something  of  the 
relationship  of  school  and  the  bread-winning  occupations.  He 
even  justified  the  state,  in  actually  maintaining  the  child  while 
he  was  being  fitted  for  larger  usefulness. 

In  1879  Wisconsin  made  her  first  positive  movement  in  the 
direction  of  compulsory  school  attendance,  enacting  a  law 
which  required  the  attendance  of  all  children  between  seven 
and  fifteen  years  of  age  upon  some  public  school  for  a  period 
of  twelve  weeks  each  year  unless  excused  by  the  school  board 
**for  sufficient  cause. '^^'^  Apparently  the  actual  enforcement 
of  this  law  was  not  contemplated.  Speaking  of  it,  the  state 
superintendent,  William  C.  Whitford,  said: 

**It  was  designed  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  people  to 
the  alarming  non-attendance  of  at  least  one-third  of  the 
children  upon  the  schools,  to  the  necessity  of  using  some  of  the 
features  of  a  compulsory  system  in  remedying  this  evil,  and 
to  discover  finally  the  exact  provisions  of  such  a  system  which 
could  generally  be  operated  and  made  efficient.  ^'^^ 

Unenforceable  though  the  law  of  1879  doubtless  was,  the 
year  following  brought  an  increase  in  the  total  enrollment  in 
the  public  schools  of  about  10,000,  or  nearly  two  per  cent,  an 
increase  due,  in  the  judgment  of  the  superintendent,  to  the 
new  law.  The  law  was  not  regarded  favorably  in  all  sections 
of  the  state,  however,  and  in  some  it  was  entirely  ignored. ^^ 
The  superintendent  urged  that  the  requirements  be  strength- 
ened, and  that  a  clause  be  added  excluding  from  factories  all 


19.  Ihid. 

20.  Laws  of  1879,  ch.  121. 

21.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1880,  p.  xxix. 

22.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1880,  p.  xxvi. 


WISCONSIN  209 

children  under  fourteen  unless  credited  with  twelve  weeks* 
schooling  in  the  preceding  year.^^  No  action  followed  immedi- 
ately, and  by  1886  the  law  had  demonstrated  its  weakness  to 
such  an  extent  that  educational  authorities  were  recommend- 
ing its  repeal  unless  by  amendment  it  could  be  brought  into  a 
more  satisfactory  form.^*  Evidently  it  had  fallen  into  very 
general  neglect,  and  was  used,  according  to  the  observation  of 
the  state  superintendent,  only  **to  make  it  the  occasion  of 
annoyance  of  school  officers,  or  of  persons  against  whom  there 
is  prejudice  or  animosity .' '^^  But  by  far  the  most  bitter 
criticism  of  the  impotent  attendance  law  came  from  those  who 
were  charged  with  the  administration  of  the  child  labor  law. 

Legislation  designed  to  control  the  employment  of  young 
children  was  secured  two  years  before  the  enactment  of  the 
first  compulsory  attendance  law,  A  strong  element  had  opposed 
any  restriction  of  labor,  regarding  it  as  an  attack  upon  the 
manufacturer,  who  here  as  elsewhere  seemed  to  require  very 
tender  treatment  throughout  the  nineteenth  century.  Besides 
the  prevailing  belief  that  the  labor  of  children  was  necessary 
for  the  successful  conduct  of  certain  business,  there  was  the 
deep-seated  conviction  that  any  interference  with  the  parent's 
control  over  his  offspring  was  a  violation  of  the  democratic 
spirit  of  America,  an  infringement  on  personal  liberty.^®  But 
in  1877  an  act  was  passed  forbidding  the  employment  of 
children  under  twelve  years  of  age,  during  the  school  year,  in 
factories  where  conditions  were  deemed  injurious  to  health.  As 
a  piece  of  legislation,  this  measure  was  ridiculously  inadequate, 
yet  it  hinted  at  two  essential  features  in  a  modem  child  labor 
law,  the  health  of  the  child  and  his  education.  The  law  was 
somewhat  improved  by  amendment  in  1878,^^  but  means  of  en- 
forcement were  not  provided,  and  it  was  quite  generally 
disregarded.^® 

In  1883  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  was  created  and 


23.  Ibid. 

24.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1885-86,  p.  42. 

25.  Ibid. 

26.  Am.  Acad.  Pol  ^  Soc.  Sci.,  Vol.  XXV.  1905,  p.  467. 

27.  Laws  of  1878,  ch.  187. 

28.  Am.  Acad.  Fol.  and  Soc.  Sci.,  op.  cit.,  p.  468. 


210   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

among  other  duties  the  Commissioner  was  charged  with  the 
enforcement  of  the  child  labor  law.^^  .A  feeble  attempt  was 
made  to  ascertain  the  extent  to  which  the  law  was  violated 
throughout  the  state,  the  Commissioner  sending  out  blanks  to 
the  various  factories  and  workshops  for  reports.  Quite  natural- 
ly, very  few  cases  were  reported,  although  on  a  personal  visit 
in  Milwaukee  some  children  were  discovered  who  were  appar- 
ently employed  illegally,  ''but,"  writes  the  Commissioner,  ''on 
putting  leading  questions  to  them  and  their  parents,  the  in- 
variable answer  was  that  they  were  past  twelve  years  of  age."^*^ 
The  Commissioner,  who  evidently  did  not  believe  that  the  law 
should  be  enforced  literally,  concluded  that  there  were  no 
serious  violations,  and  what  there  were,  he  justified  on  the 
grounds  that  as  much  good  resulted  therefrom  as  harm,  the 
employment  being  quite  respectable  and  the  children  working 
by  their  own  choice  and  anxious  to  retain  their  places.^^  Be- 
sides, argued  the  Commissioner,  since  there  was  absolutely  no 
attempt  to  enforce  the  compulsory  attendance  law,  it  would 
be  unwise  to  crowd  children  out  of  employment  and  into  idle- 
ness. "It  is  the  unqualified  opinion  of  this  Bureau,"  he  said, 
"that  children  under  twelve  or  fourteen  years  of  age  should 
be  in  school,  but  if  there  are  no  officers  to  compel  them  to  at- 
tend school,  there  should  be  none  to  force  them  from  respect- 
able and  remunerative  employment  into  idleness.  "^^ 

It  is  not  clear  that  the  Commissioner  is  quite  unprejudiced 
in  his  statements  concerning  the  enforcement  of  these  two 
statutes.  In  the  second  biennial  report  of  the  bureau  he  com- 
plains again  about  the  prevailing  neglect  of  the  attendance 
requirements : 

"There  are  about  16,000  officers  liable  for  the  enforcement 
of  these  laws ;  and  if  they  would  do  their  duty,  I  would  have 
little  or  no  difficulty  in  enforcing  the  act  keeping  children 
under  twelve  out  of  factories  and  workshops.  "^^ 

Apparently  there  had  been  no  attempt  thus  far  to  render 

29.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1883,  ch.  319. 

30.  Bpt.  Bu.  Lab.  Stat.,  1883-84,  p.  161. 

31.  Ihid.,  p.  162. 

32.  lUd.,  p.  165. 

33.  :Rpt.  Bu.  Lai.  Stat.,  1885-86,  p.  xli. 


WISCONSIN  211 

the  school  attendance  and  child  labor  laws  mutually  helpful  to 
each  other.  The  enforcement  of  both  had  been  equally  neglect- 
ed; they  had  not  attracted  sufficient  attention  to  make  them- 
selves known  even  among  those  whom  they  were  designed  to 
serve.^*  But  in  the  later  'eighties  both  child  labor  and  com- 
pulsory school  attendance  received  increasing  attention,  ques- 
tions concerning  the  latter  being  dragged  into  politics  and 
serving  to  unseat  the  dominant  party. 

In  the  year  1885  a  factory  inspector  was  appointed.  He  was 
unable  to  \'isit  the  rapidly  developing  industrial  plants 
frequently  enough  to  insure  the  enforcement  of  the  legal  re- 
quirements, and  in  1887  a  second  inspector  was  appointed.  At 
the  same  time  the  factory  laws  were  improved  and  the  labor 
of  young  children  was  more  closely  restricted.^^ 

With  the  increased  force,  illegal  child  labor,  according  to 
the  reports  of  the  bureau,  was  eliminated.  In  the  fourth  biennial 
report,  the  Commissioner  gives  notice  as  follows: 

"The  Wisconsin  bureau  cannot  furnish  statistics  of  child 
labor,  for  the  simple  fact  that  there  is  no  child  labor  in  the 
state,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word."^^ 

The  satisfaction  of  the  Commissioner  over  the  child  labor 
situation  was  not  shared  by  all.  Private  observers  and  out- 
spoken newspapers  insisted  that  young  children  were  still  at 
work  in  certain  factories.  Instead  of  investigating  the  charges, 
the  Bureau  of  Labor  secured  statements  from  some  of  the 
manufacturers  accused  of  employing  children  contrary  to  law, 
in  which  these  gentlemen  made  oath  that  they  employed  none 
under  legal  age.^^  It  does  not  appear  that  this  method  of 
proving  the  law-abiding  character  of  Wisconsin  manufacturers 
was  accepted  by  the  "irresponsible  persons  and  newspapers*' 
that  had  raised  the  question,  but  the  Deputy  Commissioner  de- 
clared in  a  public  address  in  1888  that  not  a  child  under  four- 
teen years  of  age  could  be  found  in  any  of  the  two  thousand 


34.  Bpt.  Bu.  Lab.  Stat.,  1885-86.  p.  13. 

35.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1887,  ch.  549.  No  chUd  under  fourteen  was  to  be  em- 
ployed in  factory  or  workshop  for  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day  nor  for 
more  than  seven  months  in  one  year;  no  woman  or  minor  was  to  be  com- 
pelled to  work  in  such  establishments  for  more  than  eight  hours  in  one  day. 

36.  Bpt.  Bu.  Lab.  Stat.,  1888-89,  p.  7. 

37.  Ibid. 


212      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

factories  of  the  state.    *'Our  system  of  state  inspection,"  he 
asserted,  ** prevents  their  employment."^® 

The  year  1889  marked  very  definite  progress  in  both  school 
attendance  and  child  labor  legislation.  The  labor  law  already 
sought  to  protect  children  employed  in  factories,  workshops, 
and  mines ;  to  this  list  were  now  added  stores  and  other  places 
of  business  and  amusement.  The  age  limit  was  raised  to 
thirteen  but  a  vicious  system  of  permits  was  established  which 
really  lowered  it  to  ten.  County  judges  might,  at  their  dis- 
cretion, grant  a  permit  to  work  to  any  child  over  ten  years  of 
age  who  could  read  and  write  English.  This  was  intended 
for  the  relief  of  needy  children,  but  as  the  judges  could  not 
investigate  each  case,  the  result  was  that  practically  all  who 
applied  secured  permission  to  go  to  work.^^  The  educational 
requirements  in  this  measure  were  very  meager  and  no  ad- 
equate means  of  enforcement  were  provided.  It  was  strength- 
ened two  years  later,  the  minimum  age  being  advanced  to  four- 
teen, though  permits  still  might  be  granted  to  a  child  of 
twelve.*^ 

In  regard  to  school  attendance,  a  somewhat  critical  situation 
had  arisen.  A  large  number  of  German-language  schools  had 
been  established,  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  Scandinavian  schools 
were  emphasizing  their  own  language  rather  than  the  English. 
In  1889  Governor  William  D.  Hoard  in  his  message  to  the 
legislature  called  attention  to  this  situation,  asserting  that  the 
child  has  a  right  to  a  reasonable  amount  of  instruction  in  the 
common  English  branches,  and  demanded  specifically  that  all 
be  given  opportunity  to  learn  to  read  and  write  in  English, 
He  recommended  a  system  of  state  inspection  to  enforce  a  re- 
quirement that  these  subjects  be  taught  in  all  schools.*^  There 
followed  the  enactment  of  the  famous  **Bennet  Law."*^  There 
was  nothing  unusual  or  revolutionary  about  this  measure.    It 


38.  Ct.  Bpt.,  Lab,  Stat.,  1889,  p.  50.  The  minimum  age  for  legal  employ- 
ment in  factories  in  Wisconsin  was  not  raised  to  thirteen  until  1889.  It 
was  advanced  to  fourteen  in  1891. 

39.  An.  Am.  Acad.  Pol.  and  Soc.  Sci.,  op.  cit.,  p.  469;  Laws  of  Wis.,  1889, 
ch.  519. 

40.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1891,  ch.  109. 

41.  Assembly  Journal,  1889,  p.  267. 

42.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1889,  ch.  519. 


WISCONSIN  213 

strengthened  the  former  requirements  in  certain  respects,  pro- 
vided for  the  attendance  of  all  children  between  seven  and 
fourteen  upon  some  school,  unless  properly  excused,  and  gave 
a  negative  definition  of  a  school,  simple  and  reasonable  enough 
in  an  American  state,  yet  sufficiently  displeasing  to  a  consider- 
able element  to  bring  the  entire  law  into  public  notice  and 
finally  into  the  courts.    It  was  as  follows: 

**No  school  shall  be  regarded  as  a  school  under  this  act  un- 
less there  shall  be  taught  therein,  as  part  of  the  elementary 
education  of  children,  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  United 
States  History  in  the  English  language. '* 

A  German  paper  in  Milwaukee  was  the  first  to  call  attention 
to  the  possible  effect  of  this  law  upon  certain  private  and 
parochial  schools;  others  joined,  and  there  was  hot  discussion 
in  the  press  and  on  the  platform.  On  June  4,  1890,  an  *  *  Anti- 
Bennet  State  Convention"  was  held  at  Milwaukee,  the  chief 
seat  of  opposition  to  the  law.  Here  a  fervent  call  was  made 
upon  all  **who  cherish  liberty,  regardless  of  party  or  nation- 
ality, to  join  in  the  effort  to  have  this  unnecessary,  unjust,  and 
discord-breeding  measure  repealed.'*  The  democratic  leaders 
saw  their  opportunity,  and  accused  the  republicans  of  de- 
liberately seeking  to  overthrow  the  rights  of  the  free  individual 
and  of  the  churches,  saying  in  the  platform  of  that  year: 

**To  mask  this  tyrannical  invasion  of  individual  and  con- 
stitutional rights,  the  shallow  plea  of  defense  of  the  English 
language  is  advanced."*^ 

From  the  standpoint  of  political  opportunity,  the  Democratic 
party  had  been  fortunate  in  seizing  upon  this  cause  as  its 
principal  issue.  Its  candidate  for  the  governorship  was  swept 
into  office  by  a  majority  of  30,000  over  the  Republican  can- 
didate, who  had  signed  the  unfortunate  Bennet  law.  The  of- 
fending measure  was  promptly  repealed,  and  in  its  stead  a  law 
was  enacted  which  did  not  require  the  use  of  the  English 
language.** 


43.  Thwaites,  Wisconsin,  p.  408. 

44.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1891,  ch.  187.  The  requirement  that  instruction  be  given 
in  the  English  language  is  not  unusual  in  our  compulsory  attendance  laws. 
It  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  the  leaders  of  the  party  of  Thomas  Jefferson 
could  have  seriously  objected  to  a  measure  intended  to  insure  a  reasonable 
command  of  the  language  of  their  adopted  country,  to  the  children  of 


214      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

The  compulsory  attendance  measure  enacted  to  take  the  place 
of  the  Bennet  law  was  mild  enough  to  meet  the  demands  of 
those  most  opposed  to  state  direction  of  education.  It  reduced 
the  required  period  of  attendance  by  one  year,  making  the 
compulsory  period  close  at  thirteen,  despite  the  fact  that  the 
child  labor  act  of  the  same  session  excluded  children  under 
fourteen  from  a  considerable  list  of  industries;  any  court  of 
record  might  exempt  a  child  under  thirteen  from  the  operation 
of  the  law ;  enforcement  was  entrusted  to  the  director  or  the 
president  of  a  school  board  or  to  the  truant  officer  whose  ap- 
pointment was  made  optional  with  boards.  When  appointed, 
truant  officers  had  no  authority  to  visit  places  where  children 
might  be  employed;  indeed,  in  no  way  did  the  law  recognize 
that  industrial  and  educational  problems  were  even  remotely 
related. 

The  decade  following  the  repeal  of  the  Bennet  law  was  a 
period  of  almost  absolute  inactivity  so  far  as  compulsory  educa- 
tion was  concerned.  Elective  officers  had  learned  their  lesson. 
It  was  not  good  form  even  to  speak  of  such  legislation,  and 
state  superintendents  remained  discreetly  silent.  There  was  a 
disturbing  factor,  however,  in  the  United  States  census  report 
of  1890,  which  showed  that  31,993  Wisconsin  children  between 
seven  and  thirteen  years  of  age,  more  than  eleven  per  cent  of 
the  entire  number  of  that  age,  were  attending  no  school  at  all. 
Anxious  officials  succeeded  in  showing  that  had  certain  par- 
ochial schools  been  properly  reported  it  would  have  been  found 
that  not  more  than  20,000  children  between  seven  and  thirteen 
were  actually  out  of  school.^^  The  figures  in  1895  show  that 
about  six  per  cent  of  the  children  of  the  compulsory  age,  near- 
ly 17,500,  were  without  any  form  of  instruction.*^ 

immigrants,  since  all  must  realize  the  value  of  a  common  language  in  the 
development  of  loyal  citizenship  and  true  patriotism.  It  was  a  question  of 
politics.  Here  was  an  excellent  opportunity  to  catch  a  large  foreign  vote, 
an  opportunity  which  a  politician  could  not  let  pass.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  that  after  the  passage  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  there  should  come 
from  this  state,  particularly  from  the  foreign-language  element  and  its 
political  representatives,  anti- American  sentiment  powerful  enough  to  ham- 
per seriously  the  national  administration  in  the  control  of  the  party 
which,  in  its  zeal  for  office,  exempted  several  thousand  children  from  the 
mastery  of  the  English  tongue. 

45.  Wis.  Sch.  llpt.,  1891-92,  p.  17f. 

46.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1895-^6,  p.  9. 


WISCONSIN  215 

In  this  decade  the  forces  opposed  to  the  employment  of 
young  children  in  industry  were  uniting  and  were  gaining 
such  an  understanding  of  the  problems  connected  with  effect- 
ive enforcement  of  laws  in  restraint  of  the  evil  as  enabled  them 
to  take  an  advanced  step  at  its  close.  The  inspectors  had  lost 
the  complacency  formerly  expressed  in  their  annual  reports, 
and  had  come  to  realize  that  some  thousands  of  young  children 
were  illegally  employed.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  this 
relatively  new  mid-western  state  was  essentially  rural  in  its 
industrial  life,  like  Iowa  or  Kansas.  In  1890  it  ranked  tenth 
in  the  Union  in  the  extent  of  its  manufacturing  interests.*'' 
The  commissioner  of  labor  and  industrial  statistics,  in  an  his- 
torical sketch  in  1900,  gives  a  dark  picture  of  the  working  con- 
ditions of  children: 

**In  the  older  manufacturing  cities  of  the  state,  conditions 
surrounding  working  children  were  found  to  exist  as  horrible 
as  any  which  cursed  the  life  of  the  factory  hands  of  the  older 
manufacturing  states  of  our  Union.  No  attention  was  given 
to  the  age  or  sex  of  the  child  or  nature  of  the  work  performed, 
the  only  requirement  being  the  physical  capacity  of  the  child 
to  do  the  work  given  it.***® 

A  more  careful  survey  of  the  child  labor  situation  than  had 
heretofore  been  made  was  undertaken  in  1897-1898.  Of  5600 
children  examined,  500,  or  nine  per  cent  were  found  to  be 
illegally  employed.  The  results  of  the  study  were  laid  before 
the  legislature,  and  in  1899  additional  laws  were  secured  allow- 
ing seven  inspectors  instead  of  two,  and  prohibiting  the  em- 
ployment of  children  under  fourteen  in  factories,  shops,  and 
mines  at  any  time,  as  heretofore,  and  in  stores,  laundries,  and 
messenger  service  except  during  the  vacations  of  the  public 
schools.*®  The  following  year,  the  inspectors,  prepared  now  for 
the  first  time  to  combat  the  hostility  of  the  manufacturers,  be- 
gan a  vigorous  and  successful  campaign  for  law  enforcement.''® 

By  1897  it  was  again  possible  to  consider  compulsory  school 
legislation,  and  in  that  year  an  act  was  passed  restoring  the 
upper  limit  of  the  compulsory  age  to  fourteen,  the  minimum 


47.  Wis.  Bpt.,  Bu.  Lab.  and  Indust,  Stat.,  1897-98,  p.  40. 

48.  Ibid.,  1899-1900,  p.  284. 

49.  Wis.  Laws,  1899,  ch.  274. 

50.  Bpt.  Bu.  Lab.  and  Indust.  Stat.,  1899-1900,  pp.  293,  360. 


216      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

age  for  employment  in  the  restricted  industries.''^  A  decided 
advance  was  made  in  1903  when  it  was  required  that  all 
children  between  seven  and  fourteen,  and  between  fourteen 
and  sixteen  if  not  regularly  employed,  attend  some  public, 
parochial,  or  private  school  for  the  entire  session,  a  period  of 
not  less  than  eight  calendar  months  in  cities,  of  not  less  than 
five  months  in  other  districts.^^  The  only  excuses  admitted 
were  mental  or  physical  disability  as  attested  by  a  reputable 
physician,  or  distance  from  school  of  more  than  two  miles.  En- 
forcement was  well  provided  for  in  cities  of  the  first  class, 
where  boards  of  education  were  required  to  appoint  three  or 
more  truant  officers;  in  other  cities  of  10,000  or  more  at  least 
one  such  officer  was  to  be  appointed,  while  in  the  smaller  dis- 
tricts appointment  was  optional.  Truant  officers  were  author- 
ized to  visit  places  where  children  were  employed,  factory  in- 
spectors were  given  the  powers  of  truant  officers,  and  the  laws 
were  brought  into  such  harmony  as  to  make  possible  close  co- 
operation between  the  two  groups  of  protective  forces. 

The  effect  of  the  revised  laws  was  immediately  seen  in  an 
increased  enrollment  and  in  a  more  regular  attendance.^^  In 
the  cities  truant  officers  were  provided,  and  many  children 
were  brought  under  educational  influences.^*  In  villages  and 
rural  districts,  however,  little  attention  appears  to  have  been 
given  to  the  law.^^ 

Meanwhile  there  was  a  steady  advance  in  the  efficiency  of  the 
child  labor  laws  and  in  their  administration.  In  1901  the  list 
of  places  in  which  the  employment  of  children  under  fourteen 
was  prohibited  was  made  to  include  bowling  alleys,  beer 
gardens,  and  bar-rooms.^^  The  law  retained  the  requirement 
that  employers  must  keep  on  file  the  parent's  affidavit  as 
evidence  of  age  and  schooling,  a  provision  that  Wisconsin,  like 
NcAv  York,  seemed  reluctant  to  abolish.  But  with  the  further 
development  of  industry,  accompanied  by  an  increasing  de- 


51.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1898,  ch.  27.    Enacted  at  adjourned  session  of  1897.    In 
effect,  Sept.  1,  1898. 

52.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1903,  ch.  189. 

53.  Wis.  Sch.  Bpt.,  1903-1904,  p.  65. 

54.  Ibid.,  1904-1905,  p.  27. 

55.  Ibid. 

56.  Laws  of  1901,  ch.  182. 


WISCONSIN  217 

mand  for  child  labor,  false  statements  by  parents  became  so 
common  that  the  affidavit  wa,s  abandoned.^^  In  place  of  this 
discredited  method  of  establishing  the  child's  age,  it  was  pro- 
vided that  all  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen,  seeking 
employment,  should  secure  a  labor  permit  from  the  commis- 
sioner of  labor,  a  factory  inspector,  or  a  judge  of  a  county, 
municipal,  or  juvenile  court,  such  permit  to  be  granted  only 
to  children  who  could  read  and  write  and  only  on  presentation 
of  evidence  of  age  in  the  form  of  birth  or  baptismal  certificate, 
or  if  these  be  lacking,  a  verified  record  of  age  on  first  enroll- 
ment in  school.  It  was  provided,  however,  that  a  child  be- 
tween twelve  and  fourteen  years  of  age  might  secure  a  cer- 
tificate for  employment  in  certain  industries  during  the  vaca- 
tion of  the  public  schools.  Hours  of  labor  were  limited  to  t«n 
in  one  day  and  fifty-five  in  one  week,  night  work  forbidden, 
except  when  necessary  to  save  perishable  goods,  and  a  physical 
examination  was  required  if  demanded  by  the  officer  issuing 
the  permit,^® 

Enforcement  after  1903  was  much  less  difficult  than  for- 
merly. Officers  were  not  always  sufficiently  careful  as  to  re- 
quirements of  age,  and  an  investigation  conducted  in  1904- 
1905  by  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Labor  showed  that  between 
three  and  four  per  cent  of  all  children  employed  were  under 
fourteen.^^  Yet  on  the  whole,  excellent  results  were  obtained. 
Speaking  of  the  law  in  1906,  Mr.  Edward  W.  Frost  of  Mil- 
waukee said: 

**It  has  revolutionized  the  system  in  Wisconsin,  and  some 
one  thousand  children  were  taken,  in  a  year,  out  of  the  fac- 
tories and  stores  where  they  were  unlawfully  employed,  and 
thousands  kept  from  beginning  work  under  age.''^" 

Both  the  child  labor  and  attendance  laws  were  further 
modified  at  succeeding  sessions  of  the  legislature,  notably  that 
of  1907,  always  in  the  direction  of  greater  restriction  in  em- 
ployment or  more  effective  administration.  In  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  education  undertaken  in  1911,  the  questions  involved 


57.  An.  Am.  Acad.  Pol.  and  Soc.  Sci.,  op.  cit.,  p.  471f. 

58.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1903,  ch.  349. 

59.  Bui.  No.  52,  1904,  V.  S.  Bureau  of  Lalor,  p.  493. 

60.  An.  Am.  Acad.  Pol.  and  Soc.  Sci.,  Mar.,  190(5,  p.  101. 


218   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

in  employment  and  attendance  were  merged  with  the  larger 
question  of  industrial  education,  especially  in  the  manufactur- 
ing centers,  and  in  the  concluding  pages  must  be  discussed  in 
connection  with  this  subject. 

The  movement  which  brought  Wisconsin  into  prominence 
educationally,  and  set  her  as  the  leader  of  the  sisterhood  of 
states  in  democratic  education,  was  put  under  way  at  the  close 
of  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century.  By  this  time  her 
laws  for  the  protection  of  children  were  fairly  good ;  enforce- 
ment was  probably  better  than  in  most  of  the  north  central 
states,  yet  each  year,  according  to  the  statistics  now  reason- 
ably reliable,  not  far  from  30,000  children  between  seven  and 
fourteen  years  of  age  were  out  of  school  altogether.  Other 
children,  to  the  extent  of  several  hundred  each  year,  were  be- 
ing taken  out  of  illegal  employment  and,  so  far  as  the 
machinery  of  government  permitted,  were  being  forced  into 
school,  there  to  pursue  courses  of  doubtful  value  because  of 
little  interest  to  them.  Wisconsin  was  not  alone  in  questioning 
the  value  to  the  working  child  of  the  subjects  regularly  offered 
in  the  upper  elementary  grades.  Massachusetts  had  led  in  the 
intelligent  study  of  the  problem,  several  states  had  made  more 
or  less  successful  attempts  to  foster  industrial  education,  but 
no  state  apparently  had  seen  quite  so  clearly  as  Wisconsin  the 
vision  of  a  free  and  compulsory  public  school  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  every  child. 

For  twenty  years  industrial  leaders  had  been  urging  the 
special  training  in  the  schools  of  those  who  were  to  enter  the 
skilled  trades.®^  Interests,  largely  industrial  and  commercial, 
were  calling  for  the  introduction  of  manual  training  as  a  part 
of  the  educational  program  in  the  belief  that  it  would  serve 
as  a  partial  preparation  for  the  trades,  and  in  1895  a  law  was 
enacted  offering  state  aid  for  its  development  in  high  schools.^^ 
Session  by  session  the  legislature  gave  more  generous  support 
to  the  manual  arts  and  to  the  encouragement  of  practical  sub- 
jects.®^    In  1907    boards  of   education  were    given  power   to 

61.  An  address  by  a  member  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Sta- 
tics, recorded  in  5th  An.  Bpt.  of  Conn.  Bu.  of  Lab.  Stat.,  p.  50. 

62.  Laws  of  1895,  ch.  358. 

63.  Laws  of  1899,  ch.  273  j  1901,  ch.  345. 


WISCONSIN  219 

establish  trade  schools,  unless  the  voters  should  decide  to  the 
contrary.^* 

State  Superintendent  Gary  had,  from  the  beginning  of 
his  official  service,  favored  industrial  education  for  the 
children  that  must  leave  school  early  in  order  to  go  to  work. 
In  1908  he  began  to  urge  the  establishment  of  trade  schools, 
holding  that  this  was  the  only  way  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
throngs  of  children  who  never  reach  the  high  school.®"  In 
1909  the  legislature  created  a  special  commission,  directing  it 
to  study  the  condition  and  needs  of  education  in  the  state,  and 
to  report  at  the  next  session.^®  This  commission®^  made  a  care- 
ful study  of  the  entire  educational  situation.  It  was  at  once 
seen  that  the  old  subject  of  compulsory  attendance,  with  which 
the  state  had  been  laboring  for  exactly  thirty  years,  was  a  part 
of  the  industrial  question,  that  social  changes  had  rendered 
prevailing  standards  wholly  inadequate,  and  that  the  work  of 
the  commission  must  be  more  extensive  than  had  been 
anticipated. 

*'Our  investigations,'*  writes  the  chairman,  '*have  led  us 
directly  to  the  study  of  the  relation  of  industry  to  education. 
It  is  the  education  of  the  few,  which  must  be  thoroughly  over- 
hauled, and  which  must  be  reorganized  upon  a  sound  basis, 
with  an  eye  to  the  conditions  of  the  future  progress  of  our 
state. '*«» 

After  two  years  of  investigation,  study,  and  constructive 
planning  the  commission  laid  the  results  of  its  work  before  the 
legislature,  which,  at  the  session  of  1911,  provided  for  a  state 
system  of  industrial  education  in  accordance  -with  the  recom- 


64.  Laws  of  1907,  ch.  122. 

65.  Madison  Democrat,  Jan.  20,  1908.  The  Milwaukee  School  of  Trades, 
founded  in  1906  by  legislative  act,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Merchants' 
and  Manufacturers'  Association  of  Milwaukee,  had  been  made  a  part  of  the 
city  school  system  under  the  law  of  1907.  This  school,  said  to  be  the  first 
trade  school  in  the  United  States  to  be  sustained  by  a  special  tax  levied 
for  industrial  education,  could  not  serve  the  class  of  children  Superintend- 
ent Gary  had  in  mind,  as  boys  were  not  received  until  sixteen  years  of  age. 
— Industrial  Education,  Pub.  by  Am.  Fed.  of  Labor,  1910,  p.  33. 

66.  Joint  Resolution  No.  53,  Leg.  1909. 

67.  Composed  of  the  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  university,  the  director  of  the  extension  division  of  the  univer- 
sity, the  librarian  of*  the  legislative  reference  department,  and  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  Milwaukee  public  schools. 

68.  Bpt.  of  the  Com.,  p.  3. 


220      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

mendations  submitted.^^  This  system  was  the  logical  outcome 
of  the  compulsory  attendance  and  child  labor  laws  which  had 
been  in  process  of  development  during  the  preceding  genera- 
tion, reenforced  by  the  modern  conception  of  relationship  be- 
tween education  and  industry. 

In  every  community  of  five  thousand  inhabitants  or  more, 
there  must  be  established  a  local  board  of  industrial  education, 
so  organized  as  to  unite  the  separate  interests  of  education, 
labor,  and  capital.  The  local  superintendent  of  schools  or  high 
school  principal  is  ex  officiOf  a  member  of  this  board ;  the  other 
four  members  consisting  of  two  employers  of  labor  and  two 
employees,  are  appointed  by  the  local  school  board  for  terms 
of  two  years,  and  serve  without  pay.''*'  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
local  board  of  industrial  education  to  **  establish,  foster,  and 
maintain  schools  for  instruction  in  trades  and  industries,  com- 
merce and  household  arts  in  part-time-day,  all-day,  and  even- 
ing classes.**  By  virtue  of  its  appointment,  this  board  is  al- 
most certain  to  remain  in  sympathetic  relation  with  the  regular 
public  schools.  Legally,  however,  it  is  quite  independent  of 
them.  It  prepares  its  own  budget,  reports  its  needs  to  the 
city,  village,  or  town  council,  and  in  accordance  with  its  estim- 
ate a  tax  is  levied  and  collected,  as  other  taxes  are,  not  to 
exceed  one-half  mill  on  the  taxable  property  of  the  district. 

At  the  head  of  the  system  of  industrial  education  is  a  state 
board  which  is  charged  with  full  responsibility  in  the  organ- 
ization and  development  of  vocational  education  in  the  state, 
has  control  of  all  state  aid  given  to  industrial  schools,  allots 
federal  aid  under  the  Smith-Hughes  act,  and  serves  to  unify 
the  entire  system  of  industrial  education  from  top  to  bottom. 

This  board,  as  originally  constituted,  was  composed  of  nine 
members,  three  being  ex  officiis,  the  state  superintendent  of 

69.  Laws,  1911,  ch.  616.  Three  years  before  Wisconsin  created  her  com- 
mission for  the  study  of  industrial  education,  Massachusetts  provided  for 
a  similar  study  of  her  educational  problems.  The  notable  work  of  the 
Massachusetts  commission  and  the  legislation  based  upon  it  began  a  new- 
chapter  in  the  educational  history  of  this  country.  Doubtless  the  Wisconsin 
commission  was  greatly  indebted  to  the  leaders  in  Massachusetts,  but  in  the 
newer  state,  free  from  hampering  traditions,  a  more  rapid  advance  was 
possible. 

70.  Towns  under  five  thousand  population  may  appoint  such  boards,  and  up 
to  January  1,  1917,  twenty  had  done  so  and  fifteen  had  continuation  schools 
in  operation. 


WISCONSIN  221 

public  instruction  and  the  deans  of  the  department  of  extension 
and  the  college  of  engineering  of  the  State  University.  The 
remaining  six  members,  three  employers  of  labor  and  three 
skilled  employees,  were  appointed  by  the  governor  for  terms 
of  two  years. 

There  has  been  extended  discussion  of  the  relative  merits  of 
a  system  of  industrial  education  entirely  dissociated  from  the 
general  school  system  and  one  fairly  closely  connected  with 
it.  On  the  one  hand  a  certain  element  feared  that  the  educat- 
ors would  finally  assume  complete  control  of  the  industrial 
schools,  and  that  for  the  sake  of  the  latter  there  should  be  an 
entire  separation  of  the  two  systems.^^  On  the  other  hand, 
prominent  school  men  have  insisted  that  the  best  results  could 
be  obtained  through  the  close  coordination  of  theoretical  or 
general  education  with  the  practical.^^ 

The  experience  of  several  years  has  seemed  to  warrant  the 
maintenance  of  local  boards  of  industrial  education  precisely 
as  first  organized,  but  the  state  board  has  been  changed  so  as 
to  increase  the  representation  of  the  vocational  interests,  con- 
tinuing the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  as  the 
sole  representative  of  general  education.''^ 

It  is  not  possible  here  to  enter  upon  a  detailed  discussion  of 
the  Wisconsin  system  of  industrial  education.  Those  schools 
upon  which  attendance  is  compulsory  for  certain  classes  of 
children  or  youth  must  be  indicated,  however,  and  some  of 
their  significant  features  briefly  considered.  First  in  import- 
ance is  the  continuation  school.  This  school  is  at  the  heart 
of  the  Wisconsin  system  of  industrial  education.  It  was 
originally  designed  for  children  at  work  on  permits,  but  the 
law  now  requires  that  all  children  between  fourteen  and  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  living  in  a  town,  village  or  city  maintaining 
schools  under  the  board  of  vocational  education  and  not  in 
attendance  upon  some  other  school,  must  attend  one  of  the 

71.  Wisconsin  State  Journal,  Dec.  21, 1916,  editorial. 

72.  Education  News  Bulletin,  Jan.  1,  1917;  Milwaulcee  Leader,  Mar.  14, 
1917;  JSacine  Journal-News,  Mar.  11,  1916. 

73.  Laws,  1917,  ch.  41,  sec.  41.13.  As  now  constituted,  this  board  is  made 
up  of  the  state  superintendent,  one  member  of  the  industrial  commission 
selected  by  the  commission  itself,  and  nine  members  appointed  by  the  gov- 
ernor, three  employers,  three  skilled  employees,  and  three  practical  farmers. 


222      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

industrial  or  continuation  schools  for  at  least  eight  hours  a 
week  during  eight  months  each  year/*  In  the  year  1915-1916 
these  schools  gave  instruction  to  14,284  children,  a  number 
which,  by  1920,  had  increased  to  20,932."  These  children  were 
above  fourteen  years  of  age,  had  dropped  out  of  the  public  or 
parochial  schools  to  go  to  work,  and  though  many  were  no 
more  than  half  way  through  the  grades,  their  schooling,  so  far 
as  the  old  system  could  serve  them,  was  at  an  end."^® 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  all  the  children  enrolled  in  the 
continuation  schools  began  their  attendance  willingly.  Not 
only  does  the  child  very  often  seek  to  escape  further  education- 
al obligations  when  once  he  has  secured  release  from  the  public 
school,  but  parents  sometimes  look  upon  the  continuation 
school  as  an  attempt  to  deprive  them  of  a  portion  of  the  child's 
time,  which  might  better  be  devoted  to  increasing  the  family 
income.^^ 

The  fact  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  children  are  employed 
in  ** blind  alley  jobs"  adds  decidedly  to  the  difficulty  in  ad- 
ministering the  courses  of  study  and  in  giving  intelligent 
vocational  guidance.  Such  guidance  is  not  possible  without 
interest,  and  this  is  precisely  the  stimulation  that  the  blind 
alley  worker  lacks.^^  Yet  interest  must  be  developed,  and  an 
academic  foundation  made  secure,  if  the  school  is  to  justify  it- 
self.   One  director  writes: 

*'In  our  own  schools  we  are  spending  one-half  of  the  time  in 


74.  When  the  continuation  schools  were  first  established,  in  1911,  the  mini- 
mum period  of  attendance  for  employment  certificate  children  was  fixed  at 
five  hours  a  week  for  six  months  each  year.  Wisconsin  Laws,  1911,  ch.  660. 
The  law  was  amended  in  1915,  providing  that  children  between  sixteen  and 
seventeen  years  of  age,  who  were  in  employment,  should  attend  the  continua- 
tion school  for  four  hours  a  week  during  eight  months  of  the  year,  or  for 
five  hours  during  six  months.  Section  17280-2.  No  provision  was  made  for 
the  enforcement  of  this  amendment,  and  a  permit  was  not  required ;  in  case 
a  child  had  passed  his  sixteenth  birthday,  the  officers  of  the  commission 
were  practically  impotent.  In  1917,  the  requirements  were  increased  as 
noted  above,  and  children  under  seventeen,  whether  at  work  or  not,  were 
made  subject  to  them.  In  all  cases  the  time  spent  in  school  is  to  be  in- 
cluded, if  the  child  is  at  work,  in  the  maximum  number  of  hours  during 
which  employment  is  permitted.  Wisconsin  State  Board  of  Vocational 
Education;  Bulletin  No.  3,  1919,  pp.  13-14. 

75.  Letter,  Secretary  Wis.  St.  Bd.  Voc.  Ed.,  Mar.  15,  1920. 

76.  Wis.  St.  Bd.  Indust.  Ed.,  Bui.  No.  3,  1916,  p.  4. 

77.  Ihid.,  Bui.  No.  12,  1916,  p.  41. 

78.  Bui.  No.  12,  op.  cit.,  p.  42. 


WISCONSIN  223 

keeping  alive  that  flickering  spark  of  academic  intelligence 
which  may  be  found  in  the  minds  of  most  of  the  boys  and 
girls. '''» 

The  law  makes  few  specific  requirements  as  to  the  courses 
of  study.  Only  English,  citizenship,  sanitation,  and  hygiene, 
and  the  use  of  safety  devices  are  mentioned,  all  else  being  left 
to  the  local  boards,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  state  board 
and  the  state  superintendent.  Local  conditions,  then,  may  de- 
termine the  subjects  to  be  emphasized  in  any  particular 
community. 

From  the  beginning,  the  state  has  supported  the  continuation 
schools  generously,  granting  annually  a  sum  equal  to  one-half 
the  amount  actually  expended  the  preceding  year  by  the  local 
board  in  any  approved  school,  provided  that  the  sum  granted 
a  school  in  one  year  must  not  exceed  three  thousand  dollars. 
In  1911  only  two  cities  claimed  this  aid;  in  1913,  twenty-one; 
in  1915,  twenty-nine;  in  1919,  forty-three;  in  1920,  forty-eight. 

Local  boards  of  industrial  education  may  establish  all-day 
industrial  and  commercial  schools  if  conditions  warrant,  to 
which  the  state  board  will  grant  state  aid  on  the  same  basis 
as  to  continuation  schools.  Youth  between  fourteen  and  seven- 
teen who  are  employed,  may  satisfy  the  compulsory  require- 
ments by  attendance  upon  these  schools.  Those  who  have  been 
employed  on  permit  and  are  temporarily  out  of  work  com- 
prise a  large  proportion  of  the  enrollment,  which  is  relatively 
small,  4303  in  the  industrial,  938  in  the  commercial  schools  in 
1916.«^ 

In  1911  the  apprenticeship  law  was  rewritten,  providing  that 
every  apprentice  should  be  taught  the  whole  trade  as  carried 
on  by  his  employer,  that  not  to  exceed  fifty-five  hours  a  week 
should  be  spent  in  employment  and  instruction,  and  that  of 
this  time  not  less  than  five  hours  a  week  should  be  devoted  to 
instruction  to  be  given  either  in  a  public  school  or  in  such 
other  manner  as  the  local  board  of  industrial  education  might 
approve,  such  instruction  to  continue  during  the  entire  period 
of  apprenticeship. 


79.  Ihid. 

80.  Wis.  St.  Bd.  Indust.  Ed.,  Bui.  No.  IS,  1916,  p.  24.  In  1919-1920, 
enrollment  in  the  day  continuation  schools  was  26,874,  in  the  evening 
schools,  23,178. 


224      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

This  measure  did  not  prove  popular.  Only  about  four 
hundred  apprenticeship  contracts  were  filed  with  the  Industrial 
Commission  to  which  had  been  entrusted  the  administration 
of  the  law,  although  it  was  estimated  that  there  should  have 
been  13,000.^^  In  1915  the  law  was  revised,^^  fixing  the  upper 
age  limit  for  compulsory  instruction  at  eighteen  and  giving  the 
Industrial  Commission,  instead  of  the  Board  of  Industrial 
Education,  control  over  the  subjects  to  be  taught  and  over 
certain  administrative  details.  The  new  measure  has  been 
sharply  criticized.  It  is  said  that  the  period  of  compulsory  in- 
struction was  cut  down  through  the  influence  of  the  employers, 
who  now  take  apprentices  at  eighteen,  thus  avoiding  the  school- 
ing requirements  altogether.  This  has  had  the  effect  of  keep- 
ing working  boys  in  blind  alley  occupations  up  to  eighteen, 
and  in  this  respect  the  change  in  the  law  was  a  backward 
step.®^ 

On  the  whole,  the  system  of  education  through  apprentice- 
ship appears  to  be  operating  with  sufficient  effectiveness  to 
offer  encouragement  to  its  promoters.  It  was  seriously  dis- 
turbed by  the  war,  yet  decided  progress  has  been  made  and  ^ 
skilled  workmen  well  grounded  in  both  the  theory  and  practice 
of  their  trades  are  being  graduated  each  year.^* 

The  attitude  of  labor  toward  the  system  of  industrial  educa- 
tion in  Wisconsin  has  been  somewhat  equivocal.  Without  the 
support  of  working  men  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  carry 
out  the  present  program,  yet  the  State  Federation  of  Labor, 
although  announcing  itself  as  favorable  to  education  in  all 
forms,  has  declined  to  become  identified  with  any  specific 
movement.^^  Organized  labor  has  favored  the  practical  in 
education,  but  has  protested  against  any  scheme  that  would 
tend  to  create  a  large  class  of  semi-skilled  mechanics.^®  So 
far  as  the  schools  are  able  to  raise  the  general  level  of  intelli- 
gence of  employed  youth,  they  will  doubtless  receive  the  un- 

81.  Ibid.,  pp.  27-28. 

82.  Laws,  1915,  ch.  133. 

83.  Wis.  St.  Jour.,  Jan.  14,  1917. 

84.  Industrial  Commission,  Bpt.  on  Allied  Fun'^ions,  1918,  p.  56. 

85.  The  Daily  Commonwealth,  Fond  du  Lac,  July  22,  1916. 

86.  Wisconsin  Labor  Bulletin,  April  21,  1916. 


WISCONSIN  225 

qualified  support  of  labor.  The  trade  school  is  not  likely  to 
be  given  so  full  a  measure. of  support,  however,  it  being  held 
preferable  that  the  trade  be  learned  through  apprenticeship, 
over  which  labor  may  exercise  more  direct  control.^'' 

Enforcement  of  attendance  in  the  continuation  schools  has 
been  relatively  simple  wherever  the  cooperation  of  interested 
forces  has  been  secured.  As  a  rule  the  school  authorities  have 
sought  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  employers,  thus  securing  their 
good  will  and  their  interest  in  the  progress  made  by  their 
young  employees  in  school.  The  Industrial  Commission  through 
its  inspectors  cooperates,  also,  by  revoking  the  working  papers 
of  any  child  who  persistently  absents  himself  from  the  con- 
tinuation school,  thus  removing  him  from  employment  and 
forcing  him  back  into  regular  day  school. 

The  Industrial  Commission  has  assumed  a  large  place  in 
Wisconsin's  organization  for  the  protection  and  education  of 
working  children.®^  Originally  it  united  within  itself  the 
functions  of  the  bureau  of  labor  and  industrial  statistics,  the 
state  board  of  mediation  and  arbitration,  the  department  of 
factory  inspection,  and  the  industrial  accident  board.  Gradual- 
ly its  duties  have  been  extended  and  made  to  include  important 
educational  functions,  among  them  the  organization  and  stimu- 
lation of  apprenticeship  education,  and  the  supervision  of  the 
enforcement  of  compulsory  attendance.  The  commission  also 
cooperates  in  various  ways  with  the  part-time  and  other  in- 
dustrial schools,  using  all  available  agencies  to  advance  their 
interests.®^ 

In  its  relation  to  this  study,  the  most  conspicuous  service 
performed  by  the  industrial  commission  is  in  connection  with 
the  administration  of  the  child  labor  law.  The  regulations 
under  which  children  may  be  employed  have  been  revised  in 
various  details  since  1911,  until  now,  though  not  ideal,  they 
constitute  an  excellent  working  law.  As  administered  at 
present,  this  law  appears  to  insure  to  the  working  child  ad- 
equate protection  and  an  elementary  and  industrial  education 


87.  Hid. 

88.  Laws  of  Wis.,  1911,  ch.V85. 

89.  Indust.  Com.  of  Wis.,  i.pt.  on  Allied  Functions,  1914,  p.  55;  1914,  p. 
61ff;  1917,  p.  42. 


226      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

not  excelled  by  the  compulsory  measures  of  any  other  state. 
Some  of  the  more  important  provisions  are  the  following: 

1.  No  child  under  fourteen  shall  be  employed  in  any  gain- 
ful occupation,  except  that  children  between  twelve  and  four- 
teen may  be  employed  during  the  vacations  of  the  public 
schools  in  a  limited  group  of  industries  specified  in  the  law, 
provided  a  labor  permit  has  been  secured. 

2.  No  child  between  fourteen  and  seventeen  years  of  age 
may  be  employed  in  any  gainful  occupation  without  a  labor 
permit. 

3.  The  labor  permit.^^  (1)  Documentary  proof  of  age  must 
be  presented  in  the  form  of  a  certificate  of  birth,  record  of 
baptism,  or  other  documentary  evidence  satisfactory  to  the 
commission. 

(2)  A  schooling  certificate  is  required,  signed  by  the  super- 
intendent or  principal  of  schools,  showing  that  the  child  is 
more  than  fourteen  years  of  age  and  has  completed  the  sixth 
grade  in  school  or  its  equivalent,  or  has  attended  school  for 
at  least  seven  years.®^ 

(3)  The  applicant  must  file  a  written  promise  of  suitable 
employment. 

(4)  The  employer  is  required  to  file  with  the  issuing  officer 
a  written  statement  to  the  effect  that  the  permit  has  been  re- 
ceived and  filed,  and  that  the  child  is  actually  employed. 

(5)  Within  twenty-four  hours  after  termination  of  employ- 
ment, the  employer  must  return  the  permit  to  the  office  of 
issue. 

(6)  The  representative  of  the  commission  may  refuse  to 
issue  a  permit  in  case  the  child  seems  physically  unfit  to  en- 
gage in  the  employment  proposed,  or  in  case,  in  his  judgment, 
the  best  interests  of  the  child  would  be  served  by  such  refusal. 

(7)  The  commissioner  of  labor  is  authorized  to  revoke  a 
permit  without  notice  if  it  appears  that  the  welfare  of  the 
child  would  best  be  served  by  such  action. 

4.  All  children  under  seventeen  employed  under  permit  in 
a  city  maintaining  a  vocational  school  must  attend  such  school 
for  at  least  eight  hours  per  week,  for  at  least  eight  months  per 
year. 

5.  The  total  number  of  hours  of  labor  and  schooling  must 
not  exceed  forty-eight  in  one  week  if  the  child  is  under  six- 
teen, or  fifty-five  in  one  week  if  between  sixteen  and  seventeen. 

6.  It  is  the  duty  of  inspectors  and  truant  officers  to  visit 


90.  The  restrictions  in   1    and  2   do  not   apply  to  children  employed  in 
agricultural  pursuits. 

91.  After  July  1,  1920,  completion  of  the  seventh  grade  or  attendance  for 
at  least  eight  years. 


WISCONSIN  227 

places  where  children  are  employed  and  to  prosecute  violators 
of  the  law. 

7.  Employers  violating  the  law  are  subject  to  a  fine  of  not 
less  than  ten  dollars  nor  more  than  two  hundred  dollars  for 
each  offense,  or  imprisonment  in  the  county  jail  not  longer 
than  thirty  days.  Parents  permitting  the  illegal  employment 
of  a  child  may  be  fined  not  less  than  five  nor  more  than  twenty- 
five  dollars,  or  imprisoned  for  not  longer  than  thirty  days. 

In  most  respects,  the  Wisconsin  child  labor  law  now  embodies 
the  highest  standards  that  have  thus  far  been  established  any- 
where. No  specific  provision  is  made,  however,  for  the  physical 
examination  of  applicants  for  working  papers.  The  law  author- 
izes the  withholding  of  permits  from  those  who  seem  physically 
unfit  to  perform  the  labor  proposed,  and  the  commission  has 
interpreted  this  to  mean  that  the  child  is  to  be  protected  in 
his  health  as  well  as  in  his  education.  It  has,  therefore,  held 
that  school  officials,  and  others  designated  as  permit  deputies, 
may  require  certificates  of  health  issued  by  a  public  health 
physician  or  by  some  other  legally  qualified  physician,  before 
granting  labor  permits.*^  In  Milwaukee,  equivalent  to  one- 
half  the  state  measured  by  the  number  of  children  at  work,  no 
permit  is  issued  unless  the  applicant  presents  a  detailed  state- 
ment of  his  physical  condition  from  the  city  health  department 
or  from  other  competent  medical  authority.  The  issuing  officer 
uses  this  statement  in  determining  whether  or  not  the  applicant 
is  physically  fit  to  perform  the  labor  at  which  he  is  to  be 
employed.®^ 

In  the  enforcement  of  the  child  labor  laws,  for  which  it  is 
fully  responsible,  the  industrial  commission  has  sought  the  co- 
operation of  the  school  authorities,  utilizing  them  quite  general- 
ly throughout  the  state  in  the  granting  of  labor  permits.  Be- 
fore the  creation  of  the  commission,  permits  might  be  issued 
by  the  commissioner  of  labor,  a  factory  inspector,  or  by  the 
judge  of  any  county,  municipal,  or  juvenile  court.®*  With 
minor  changes,  this  practice  was  continued  until  1917,  when 
it  was  provided  that  permits  might  be  issued  only  by  the  com- 


92.  Industrial  Commission  of  Wis.,  Bpt.  on  Allied  Functions,  1918,  p.  47. 

93.  Industrial  Commission  of  Wis.,  Child  Labor  Law,  p.  12.  In  Milwaukee 
in  191C,  permits  were  denied  more  than  five  per  cent  of  those  applying  for 
them.    Industrial  Commission ;  Statistics  on  Child  Labor,  p.  4. 

94.  The  basis  of  this  provision  is  found  in  the  law  of  1889. 


228      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

mission  or  by  some  person  designated  by  it.®''  So  far  as  pos- 
sible, those  already  in  public  service,  mostly  judges  and  school 
officials,  are  entrusted  with  this  duty.®*  The  commission  has 
endeavored,  also,  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  the  various  social 
and  civic  organizations®'^  and  of  the  employers  themselves.®* 

Under  the  law  the  commission  has  extensive  power  in  de- 
termining the  conditions  under  which  children  may  be  em- 
ployed.®® It  has  been  given  a  powerful  leverage  in  enforce- 
ment, also,  by  a  provision  in  the  workmen's  compensation  law 
to  the  effect  that  any  minor  of  permit  age  who  is  injured  while 
working  without  a  permit  or  while  engaged  in  a  prohibited 
industry,  must  be  awarded  treble  compensation,  the  employer 
himself  paying  the  extra  compensation,  or  two-thirds  of  the 
whole.  The  maximum  sum  which  may  be  received,  when  a 
child  illegally  employed  is  injured,  is  $22,815,  of  which  the  em- 
ployer would  be  required  to  pay  $15,210 ;  no  insurance  against 
this  hazard  is  permitted  under  the  law.^°^ 

In  the  city  of  Milwaukee  the  machinery  of  the  public 
school  system  is  effectively  organized  to  deal  with  attend- 
ance, health,  employment,  and  related  problems,^^^  But 
even  here,  the  industrial  commission  is  in  the  closest  possible 
touch  with  the  life  of  the  working  child.  An  office  is  main- 
tained in  the  city  and  all  labor  permits  are  issued  by  a  deputy 
of  the  commission.  A  junior  employment  department  operates 
in  connection  with  the  permit  office  and  every  effort  is  made 
to  place  in  suitable  occupations  those  children  who  must  go 
to  work.  The  department  of  factory  inspection  cooperates 
with  the  permit   and   employment   officers;   special   workers, 

95.  Industrial  Commission,  Bpt.  on  Allied  Functions,  1918,  p.  45. 

96.  Ibid.  About  two  hundred  persons,  serving  without  pay,  give  part  of 
their  time  to  this  work. 

97.  Ihid.,  Rpt.  for  1917,  p.  32. 

98.  Ihid.,  Rpt.  for  1914,  p.  56. 

99.  IMd.,  Rpt.  for  1914,  p.  53. 

100.  Ihid.,  Rpt.  for  1918,  p.  46. 

101.  The  supervisor  of  the  attendance  department  of  the  Milwaukee  schools, 
H.  R.  Pestalozzi,  relative  of  Johann  Heinrich  Pestalozzi,  is  a  conspicuous 
figure  in  the  child-welfare  work  of  the  city  and  the  state.  Few  men  under- 
stand so  well  as  he  the  needs  and  limitations  of  working  children.  He  has 
been  an  insistent  advocate  of  methods  and  subject-matter  adapted  to  these 
needs,  and  of  laws  so  drawn  and  administered  as  to  guarantee  to  each  child 
adequate  educational  and  industrial  opportunities. 


WISCONSIN  229 

many  of  them  volunteers,  aid  in  adjusting  the  educational  and 
working  programs  of  the  employed  children;  undesirable  em- 
ployers are  discovered  and  listed;  employers  are  instructed 
as  to  the  requirements  and  penalties  of  the  law,  and  those  few 
who,  after  due  notice,  decline  to  cooperate  in  the  interests  of 
enforcement,  are  subjected  to  fine  or  imprisonment.^^^ 

Wisconsin  has  gone  farther  than  the  average  American 
commonwealth  in  the  direction  of  state  enforcement  of  attend- 
ance, having  at  least  attempted  to  secure  centralized  super- 
vision. Direct  responsibility  for  the  administration  of  these 
laws  is  laid  upon  local  school  boards,  truant  officers,  superin- 
tendents, and  sheriffs,  but  the  industrial  commission  is  author- 
ized to  participate  in  enforcement  so  far  as  it  is  not  secured 
by  other  agencies.^^^  Following  the  New  York  practice,  the 
commission  provided  for  a  system  of  monthly  reports  of  at- 
tendance from  truant  officers,  superintendents  and  teachers, 
intending  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  schools  of  the  state  and  to 
check  the  work  of  local  officials.^"*  Unfortunately,  the  duties 
of  the  commission  in  the  administration  of  the  labor  laws  have 
become  so  heavy  that  it  has  been  unable  to  give  adequate  at- 
tention to  school  attendance.^^^  The  machinery  is  available  for 
the  type  of  state  supervision  of  attendance  carried  on  for 
some  years  in  New  York,^^®  and  now  inaugurated  in  Pennsyl- 
vania,"^ but  the  industrial  commission  is  not  accepting  the 
responsibility  laid  upon  it  by  the  law,  the  state  department  of 
education  has  no  authority  to  proceed,  and  as  a  consequence 
those  counties  and  cities  that  wish  to  enforce  the  law  do  so 
according  to  their  respective  ideals  of  enforcement,  while 
those  not  interested  may  neglect  the  statute  altogether  with- 
out fear  of  state  interference  or  penalty. 

E\ddently  Wisconsin  has  made  no  striking  contribution  to 
methods  of  administering  laws  requiring  the  general  attend- 


102.  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Labor y  Children's  Bureau,  Standards  of  Child  Welfare, 
1919,  pp.  125-131.  Indust.  Com.  of  Wis.  Bpt.  on  Allied  Functions,  1918, 
p.  49. 

103.  Indust.  Com.  of  Wis.,  Bpt.  on  Allied  Functions,  1917,  p.  39. 

104.  Ibid.,  1918,  p.  51. 

105.  Ihid. 

106.  -Supra,  p.  167. 

107.  Supra,  p.  201. 


230   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  ANT)  CHILD  LABOR 

ance  of  young  children  upon  the  means  of  education,  yet  it 
is  not  easy  to  overemphasize  the  service  performed  by  her  in 
pointing  the  way  to  compulsory  industrial  education  in 
America.  While  other  states  were  moving  slowly  towards  the 
education  of  working  children  by  way  of  voluntary  evening 
and  part-time  day  schools,  Wisconsin,  profiting  by  the  con- 
spicuous example  of  certain  of  the  German  states,  inaugurated 
her  system  of  compulsory  continuation  schools  and  entered 
upon  the  series  of  experiments  leading  to  her  present  well- 
rounded  system.  For  several  years  the  pioneer  work  of  Wis- 
consin was  followed  with  keen  interest  by  professional  educat- 
ors and  laymen  alike.  Finally,  Pennsylvania,  in  1915,  estab- 
lished a  complete  system  of  continuation  schools  requiring  the 
attendance  of  all  children  employed  on  certificate.  Since  then, 
progress  has  been  rapid.  At  the  present  time  a  third  of  all 
the  states  in  the  Union  have  enacted  laws  providing  for  some 
form  of  compulsory  education  for  working  children.^*^® 


108.  Seq^.,  p.  256. 


CHAPTER  IX 

SUMMAEY  AND  CONCLUSION 

In  this  chapter  it  is  proposed  to  segregate  certain  of  the 
more  significant  factors  entering  into  the  legislation  discussed 
in  the  preceding  sections,  to  observe  their  relationships,  to 
summarize  their  historical  evolution,  and  to  determine  their 
present  status. 

Legislative  investigations  as  bases  of  compulsory  measures 
At  the  present  time  the  progressive  educational  programs  in 
the  various  states  and  the  most  effective  legislation  for  the 
control  of  child  labor  are  based  upon  carefully  conducted  in- 
vestigations carried  on  by  selected  experts  appointed  under 
legislative  authority.  It  is  not  difficult  to  find  crude  precedent 
for  the  elaborate  child  labor  and  educational  laws  of  to-day 
in  the  statute  of  Henry  IV.,  in  1405,  requiring  children  to  en- 
gage in  regular  employment  if  not  attending  school.^  This 
statute  was  in  response  to  the  petitions  of  Commons  based 
upon  industrial  facts  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  petitioners, 
demanded  far  more  drastic  legislation  than  that  finally  secured. 
jMethods  of  obtaining  data  upon  which  laws  in  control  of 
children  were  based  apparently  remained  crude  and  inade- 
quate in  England  up  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
In  the  beginning  of  that  fruitful  century,  the  investigations 
which  laid  the  foundation  for  modern  methods  were  carried 
on  largely  by  private  initiative  and  private  means.  By  the 
middle  of  the  century,  however,  legislative  commissions  were 
making  thorough-going  inquiries  into  industrial  and  education- 
al conditions  which  have  served  as  working  models  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

In  America,  seventeenth  century  legislation  relating  to  the 
employment  and  education  of  children  was  based  upon  facts  of 
common  knowledge  or  upon  tradition.    In  the  early  national 


1.  Supra,  p.  10. 

231 


232   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

period  there  were  half-hearted  inquiries  of  no  great  value, 
usually  made  at  the  insistent  demand  of  the  newly  enfran- 
chised working  men,  and  not  seriously  intended  to  present 
facts  upon  which  compelling  laws  might  be  built.^  Such  in- 
vestigations were  made  by  the  legislators  themselves  and  were 
neither  extensive  nor  definite  in  character,  though  sometimes 
revealing  conditions  bad  enough  to  warrant  far  more  vigorous 
action  than  any  proposed.  Toward  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century  more  definite  inquiries  began  to  be  made,  now  con- 
ducted by  committees  or  commissions  in  accordance  with  legis- 
lative resolutions  or  acts.  As  a  rule  these  bodies  studied  with 
some  care  the  industrial  or  educational  problems  assigned  to 
them,  and  their  reports  throw  much  light  upon  conditions  pre- 
vailing at  the  time.^  In  the  first  and  second  decades  of  the 
twentieth  century,  inquiries,  investigations,  and  surveys  have 
assumed  highly  specialized  aspects ;  they  have  been  carried  out, 
sometimes  by  direct  legislative  orders,  sometimes  under  the 
authority  of  boards  vested  with  legal  powers  to  order  and 
support  such  investigations,  but  always  under  the  immediate 
direction  of  trained  experts  not  members  of  the  authorizing 
bodies.*  As  might  be  expected,  resulting  legislation,  based  on 
data  secured,  has  carried  constantly  diminishing  evidence  of 
political  and  other  vested  interests. 

Change  in  attitude  toward  the  child 
Pear  was  the  force  back  of  the  Elizabethan  child  labor  laws 
compelling  young  children  of  the  poorer  classes  to  engage  in 
productive  toil,  fear  of  poverty  and  of  the  evil  effects  of  idle- 
ness. That  same  fear,  likewise,  was  in  the  hearts  of  the  colo- 
nial law-makers  of  1642  and  1647,  supplemented  by  the  fear 
of  Satan  who,  they  were  assured,  ever  used  ignorance  to 
damn  the  race.  There  was,  to  be  sure,  an  appreciation  of  the 
earning  power  of  children,^  which  became  more  pronounced  in 
the  later  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when,  in  the  new 
material  prosperity,  the  educational  requirements  were  relaxed 

2.  Pennsylvania,  1822,  supra,  p.  42. 

3.  For  example,  see  Mass.,  1895,  supra,  p.  70f. 

4.  Mass.,  1905,  supra,  p.  76ff. 

5.  Supra,  p.  20f . 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  233 

\ 

in  order  that  thrifty  parents  and  masters  might  more  diligently 
**  improve  their  children  and  servants  in  labor. '^^  But  the  | 
economic  value  of  the  child  was  not  stressed  in  America  until 
the  application  of  power  to  textile  machinery  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century  put  a  premium  upon  nimble 
fingers  and  mental  alertness.  Under  the  new  conditions  par- 
ents found  in  a  large  family  of  children  a  very  substantial 
source  of  income.  No  one  questioned  the  father's  right  to  the 
time  and  labor  of  his  child,  and  early  attempts  to  limit  the  em- 
ployment of  very  young  children  were  opposed  on  the  grounds 
of  unwarranted  interference  with  the  natural  and  holy  privi- 
leges of  parenthood. 

The  earlier  legislation  was  not  written  in  a  spirit  friendly 
and  sympathetic  to  the  child;  rather  it  is  typical  of  the  stern 
idea  of  Puritan  justice  untempered  by  mercy.^  It  was  not  the 
idea  of  reformation  but  of  unquestioned  control  w^hich  moved 
the  law-maker  as  he  sought  to  solve  the  social  problems  of  his 
day,  and  in  ease  the  parent  was  not  able  to  maintain  a  suffici- 
ent degree  of  control  over  his  child,  the  state  stood  ready  to 
assist.®  Very  naturally  the  employer  was  regarded,  in  a  sense, 
as  standing  in  loco  parentis.  The  early  system  of  apprentice- 
ship would  make  this  conception  inevitable.  Therefore,  until 
quite  recently,  the  interests  of  the  employer  rather  than  those 
of  the  child  have  been  uppermost  in  the  making  and  adminis- 
tration of  laws  regulating  employment  and  schooling.  It  has 
not  been  difficult  for  those  who  were  exploiting  children  in 
factories  to  control  at  least  one  branch  of  a  state  legislature, 
if  action  prejudicial  to  their  interests  seemed  imminent.^  Even 
when  adequate  laws  finally  were  secured,  enforcing  officers 
usually  dealt  tenderly  with  employers  who  continued  children 
on  their  pay  rolls  in  defiance  of  restrictions.^®  In  case  of  actual 
prosecution,  conviction  was  made  next  to  impossible  by  throw- 
ing upon  the  prosecutor  the  burden  of  pro\dng  that  the  child 
had  been  ** knowingly  and  wilfully"  employed.     In  modern 


\ 


6.  Siipra,  p.  26. 

7.  For  example,  the  Massachusetts  law  of  1642,  supra,  p.  20. 

8.  In  accordance  with  ancient  Hebrew  usages,  the  death  penalty  might  be 
exacted  if  children  became  incorrigible.    See  Conn.  Col.  Records,  p.  515. 

9.  Supra,  p.  123. 

10.  Supra,  pp.  49,  56,  146,  179. 


234   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

legislation  the  interests  of  the  child  and  of  society  have  first 
place.  Needy  parents  may  no  longer  jeopardize  the  future  of 
the  state  by  denying  to  their  children  the  elements  of  educa- 
tion. Employers  have  discovered  that,  after  all,  the  labor  of 
young  children  is  not  so  profitable  as  had  been  supposed,  and 
in  case  of  illegal  employment  there  is  little  opportunity  for 
refuge  in  the  ambiguous  or  confusing  phrasing  of  statutes.  It 
is  now  a  kindly  state  that  safe-guards  the  child,  secures  his 
physical  and  moral  health,  insists  that  he  acquire  the  funda- 
mentals of  a  literary  education,  puts  him  in  possession  of  some 
industrial  skill  and  seeks  to  advance  him  to  intelligent,  useful 
citizenship. 

Prime  movers  for  the  protection  of  children 
It  is  not  pleasant  to  conclude  that  schools  and  teachers  have 
had  an  inconspicuous  place  in  the  development  of  a  public 
sentiment  necessary  to  secure  adequate  laws  for  the  protection 
and  education  of  children.  Teachers  have  not  been  anxious  to 
receive  in  their  well-ordered  classes  those  who,  by  taste  or 
necessity,  placed  foremost  the  bread-winning  pursuits.  School 
superintendents  and  other  school  officials  empowered  to  en- 
force attendance  laws  often  have  persistently  declined  to  dis- 
charge their  duty.^^  Those  interested  in  parochial  schools 
have,  in  many  instances,  opposed  compulsory  attendance  legis- 
lation, fearing  that  the  enforcement  of  such  laws  would  lead 
to  state  interference  with  the  conduct  of  their  schools.^^ 
Strangely  enough  a  very  general  argument  in  opposition  to 
laws  requiring  attendance  at  school,  during  the  first  three- 
quarters  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  that  such  measures 
were  undemocratic  and  out  of  harmony  with  American  prin- 
ciples of  government.^^ 

—  Enfranchised  working  men,  organized  and  able  to  command 
the  attention  of  the  state  legislatures,  Avere  largely  responsible 
for  the  earliest  authorized  investigations  of  the  conditions 
under  which  children  were  employed.^*  Philanthropic  agencies, 

11.  For  example,  Mass.,  supra,  p.  63. 

12.  For  example,  Wis.,  supra,  p.  212. 

13.  For  example,  Penn.,  supra,  p.  176 ;  Wis.,  pp.  204,  207. 

14.  For  example,  N.'  Y.,  supra,  p.  116 ;  Penn.,  p.  173. 


.    SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  235 

even  before  labor  became  influential,  had  accomplished  some- 
thing, and  when  these  two  forces  learned  how  to  cooperate  they 
became  the  outstanding  influence  in  the  movement  in  behalf 
of  children. 

Naturally  enough,  labor  organizations  have  been  primarily 
interested  in  restricting  the  employment  of  children,  and  only 
indirectly  were  they  at  first  concerned  with  their  schooling; 
philanthropy,  on  the  other  hand,  was  first  aroused  by  the  fact 
that  industry  was  robbing  children  of  even  the  elements  of 
school  education.  That  the  forces  controlled  or  influenced  by 
labor  and  philanthropy  have  not  been  completely  coordinated 
is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  in  few  states  has  there  been  en- 
tire harmony  in  the  laws  relating  to  child  labor  and  school 
attendance.  In  the  administration  of  such  laws  there  has  been 
even  less  harmony. 

Both  labor  and  philanthropy  have  operated  in  the  program 
in  behalf  of  children  through  various  specialized  agencies,  such 
as  committees  of  labor  unions,  state  departments  or  bureaus 
of  labor,  and  state  and  Aational  child  labor  committees.  State 
departments  of  education  have  more  recently  exercised  con- 
siderable influence,  while  teachers  through  state  and  national 
organizations  have  fallen  in  with  the  general  movement. 

Some  of  the  retarding  influences 
Since  the  time  of  James  Carter  and  Horace  Mann  there  has 
been  constant  agitation  for  legislation  intended  to  restrain 
children  from  severe  labor  and  to  provide  for  their  schooling. 
Many  causes  have  contributed  to  delay  adequate  legislation. 
Some  of  them  have  already  been  indicated.  Selfishness  of  em- 
ployers and  poverty  of  parents,  unwilling  to  sacrifice  their  real 
or  fancied  interests  to  the  social  good,  were  for  years  relatively 
constant  factors.  Social  inertia  long  rendered  adequate  laws 
impossible.  A  few  men  with  vested  interests  could  easily  pre- 
vent legislation,  could  usually  divert  attention  from  the  real 
issues.  Progress  was  delayed,  also,  by  the  early  enactment  of 
spineless  laws,  which  were  \videly  copied  in  various  states.  The 
Michigan  attendance  law  of  1871,  copied  without  substantial 
change  in  half  a  dozen  other  states,  and  the  Massachusetts  act 
of  1852,  the  first  general  attendance  law  in  America,  are  good 
examples. 


236      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Religious  organizations  not  in  complete  sympathy  with  public 
education  have  frequently  resisted  such  state  control  as  is  im- 
plied in  compulsory  school  attendance  laws,  and  in  several 
states  have  been  strong  enough  to  prevent  legislation  for  years 
or  to  demand  concessions  which  have  greatly  weakened  the 
measures  enacted.^^ 

Possibly  the  element  which,  more  than  any  other,  has  tended 
to  delay  effective  control  of  the  entire  situation  has  been  the 
lack  of  cooperation  of  agencies  interested  primarily  in  the  re- 
striction of  child  labor  and  those  chiefly  concerned  in  educa- 
tion. That  child  labor  and  compulsory  school  attendance  repre- 
sent but  two  aspects  of  a  single  problem  is  now  generally 
recognized.  Yet  even  to-day,  while  the  laws  themselves  are 
usually  worked  out  with  such  care  as  to  insure  reasonable 
harmony,  there  is  relatively  little  cooperation  in  their  ad- 
ministration.^^ 

Exemption  from  the  requirements  of  compulsory  laws 
In  the  earlier  attendance  laws  liberal  provision  was  made 
for  exemption  from  the  fixed  penalties.  The  most  persistent 
of  the  causes  for  exemption  have  been  poverty  of  parents  and 
lack  of  mental  or  physical  ability  on  the  part  of  the  child,  but 
even  these  claims  are  yielding.  Most  states  make  special  pro- 
vision for  the  education  of  children  defective  in  mind  or  body ; 
the  most  enlightened  are  compelling  the  attendance  of  such 
unfortunates  upon  suitable  means  of  instruction.^'' 

Under  the  theory  that  the  parent  was  entitled  to  the  economic 
service  of  his  child,  compulsory  school  attendance  laws  were 
long  resisted.  In  many  states  the  enactment  of  the  first  legis- 
lation of  this  character  was  possible  only  by  including  the 
provision  that  in  case  the  labor  of  a  child  was  necessary  for 
the  support  of  his  parents  he  would  be  exempt  from  the  penal- 
ties of  the  law.  In  the  later  development  of  compulsory  school 
attendance  laws  it  became   evident   that   the   children  most 


15.  Supra,  pp.  128,  147,  213. 

16.  In  this  respect  Connecticut  must  be  cited  as  a  conspicuous  exception. 
Here  a  single  set  of  state  officials  is  charged  with  the  duty  of  keeping 
children  in  school  and  out  of  illegal  employment.  Even  here  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  secure  necessary  cooperation  of  local  officials. 

17.  Supra,  p.  73. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  237 


frequently  excused  were  precisely  the  ones  most  important  to 
reach,  since  primarily,  free  public  education  was  for  the  benefit 
of  the  poor.  As  early  as  1889  Massachusetts,  in  revising  her 
attendance  laws,  omitted  poverty  as  cause  for  exemption  from 
their  operation.  Connecticut  alone  of  the  states  included  in 
this  study  retains  this  provision,  but  in  the  administration  of 
the  law  few  children,  if  any,  under  fourteen  years  of  age  re- 
main out  of  school  because  of  poverty. 

Legislation  alone  cannot  dispose  of  the  problems  of  poverty. 
Against  the  child  who  leaves  school  to  earn  food  and  clothing 
society  has  no  case.  Until  a  way  is  found  to  relieve  the  neces- 
sity which  drives  a  child  too  early  to  bread-winning  labor,  at 
the  same  time  preserving  the  self  respect  of  both  the  child  and 
his  family,  poverty,  whether  recognized  as  legal  cause  for  ex- 
emption or  not,  will  serve  to  shorten  the  desired  period  of 
schooling.^® 

Compulsory  health  provisions 
In  enacting  the  first  compulsory  education  law  in  America^, 
the  General  Court  of  ^lassachusetts  Bay  clearly  had  in  mind    : 
the.,moral  as  well  as  the  intellectual  and  economic  welfare  of    ' 
children.    Two  hundred  years  later,  when  the  descendants  ofJ 
these  Puritan  law-makers  were  fighting  for  compulsory  school 
attendance  and  child  labor  laws  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecti- 
cut, their  strongest  argument  was  that  children  were  growing 
up  without  proper  opportunity  to  develop  their  moral  natures 
and  under  conditions' prejudicial  to  health.    Relativ'eTjT'earry, 
the  more  progressive  states  began  to  exclude  children  from 
occupations    regarded    as    physically    or    morally    dangerous. 
Later,    factory    inspectors    were    given    authority   to    remove    \ 
children  from  such  employment  as  seemed  unsuited  to  their 
strength ;  and,  finally,  the  modern  state  provided  that  no  minor 
should  enter  upon  dangerous  employment  and  that  no  child 
under  sixteen  should  leave  school  to  engage  in  any  sort  of 
labor  exclusive  of  home  duties  and  farming,  without  first  sub-  I 
mitting   to  a  thorough    medical    examination  and    securing  a 
physician's  written  assurance  of  physical  fitness  for  the  specific 

18.  Philanthropy  in  form  of  scholarships  is  offering  a  temporary  solution 
in  New  York  City.  Supra,  p.  137.  Massachusetts  legalizes  meals  for 
school  children  at  public  expense,  Acts  of  1913,  ch.  575. 


s/ 


238   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

tasks  proposed.  Several  states  have  now  provided  for  medical 
inspection  of  school  children,  usually  authorizing  school  boards 
to  establish  such  inspection  at  public  expense  and  to  require 
all  children  under  their  control  to  submit  to  periodic  examina- 
tions. Massachusetts  has  taken  the  logical  step  in  developing 
her  system  of  free  and  compulsory  education  by  requiring 
medical  inspection  in  all  public  schools  throughout  the  state. 
With  compulsory  medical  examinations  supported  by  an  ad- 
equate system  of  public  school  nursing,  compulsory  vaccina- 
tion, and  innoculation  against  various  diseases,  and  with  voca- 
tional restrictions  in  harmony  with  the  physical  conditions  of 
the  child,  the  foundation  is  laid  for  a  compulsory  health  pro- 
gram of  great  significance. 

Working  papers 

The  history  of  the  development  of  the  employment  certificate 
is  the  history  of  effective  child  labor  legislation.  In  all  the 
states  included  in  this  study,  fairly  representative  of  the 
American  policy  in  this  respect,  the  same  general  features  ap- 
pear in  the  evolution  of  working  papers.  The  simple  state- 
ment of  school  attendance,  signed  by  a  teacher  and  sworn  to 
before  a  justice  of  the  peace,  as  provided  for  in  Massachu- 
setts in  1838,  was  not  intended  to  insure  to  the  child  the  ele- 
ments of  an  education,  nor  to  keep  him  out  of  the  factory.  It 
was  rather  a  guarantee  of  immunity  to  the  employer  against 
the  penalty  of  the  law  enacted  two  years  earlier,  requiring 
that  no  child  under  fifteen  should  be  employed  in  a  factory 
unless  he  had  attended  school  for  at  least  three  months  of  the 
preceding  twelve.  Employers  of  children  were  not  required 
to  demand  these  certificates ;  as  a  matter  of  fact  little  attention 
was  given  them,  since  the  law  was  not  enforced.  Provisions 
for  school  attendance  certificates  little  more  effective  than 
those  of  1838  in  Massachusetts  were  made  by  other  states  in 
the  early  stages  of  child  labor  legislation,  as  in  Connecticut  in 
1842  and  in  New  York  in  1874.  In  Pennsylvania,  not  even  this 
crude  form  was  provided  until  1889. 

In  the  early  certificates  of  age  and  schooling  the  oath  was 
regarded  as  important.  Ver^  reluctantly,  apparently,  legis- 
lators and  administrators  came  to  the  conclusion  that  such  an 
oath  was  utterly  valueless  as  evidence  of  age.     Parents  who 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  239 

desired  to  set  their  young  children  at  work  were  quite  ready 
to  make  affidavit  that  they  were  of  legal  age.  Even  though  a 
child  was  manifestly  under  age  it  was  not  difficult  to  secure 
an  affidavit  through  a  careless  or  corrupt  official.  Indeed,  in 
some  localities  a  thriving  petty  business  was  done  by  notaries 
and  others  competent  to  administer  the  oath,  the  objective  on 
their  part  being  the  small  fee  which  the  law  allowed.^^  Not 
until  the  present  century  did  even  the  more  progressive  states 
begin  to  provide  for  adequate  documentary  evidence  of  age  in 
the  form  of  birth  certificates,  religious  records,  passports,  or 
definite  school  records. 

It  is  commonly  agreed  that  under  ideal  conditions  the  certi- 
ficate of  employment  should  never  be  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  child  but  should  be  sent  by  mail  directly  to  the  employer 
from  the  office  of  issue;  then,  on  termination  of  employment, 
it  should  be  returned  in  the  same  manner  to  the  office  of  issue. 
The  experience  of  many  years  was  required  to  develop  this 
standard;  that  of  Massachusetts  may  be  regarded  as  typical. 
In  this  state  it  was  found  that  employers  were  preserving  age 
and  schooling  certificates  after  children  presenting  them  had 
left  their  service.  These  papers  were  then  assigned  to  other 
children  who  applied  for  work  but  w^ho  had  no  certificates. 
In  1890  a  law  was  enacted  making  the  certificate  the  property 
of  the  child  and  requiring  that  on  leaving  service  it  be  returned 
to  him.2°  This  did  not  prove  satisfactory.  The  child  might 
return  to  school,  seek  a  new  job,  or  loaf  in  idleness  until  dis- 
covered by  some  vigilant  truant  officer.  The  next  step,  taken 
in  Massachusetts  in  1913,  in  some  states  earlier,  was  to  require 
the  employer  to  return  the  certificate,  not  to  the  child,  but  to 
the  authorities  issuing  it.  The  child  then,  on  securing  the 
promise  of  employment,  applies  for  a  new  certificate.  Between 
jobs,  the  school  authorities  know  precisely  where  he  is,  or  at 
least  they  have  data  to  enable  them  to  know. 

Another  valuable  safeguard  to  the  working  child  is  the  em- 
ployment ticket,  now  quite  commonly  demanded.  Until  very 
recently  any  child  of  proper  age  and  literacy  might  secure 


19.  As  in  Pennsylvania,  supra,  p.  184,  and  New  York,  p.  127. 

20.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1890,  ch.  299.  New  York  still  retains  this  plan. 


240   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

workinj>'  papers  even  if  he  had  no  definite  employment  in  view. 
Under  such  conditions  he  might  be  out  of  school  and  idle  for 
days  or  even  weeks  and  might  in  the  end  secure  work  for 
which  he  was  not  at  all  fitted.  Under  ideal  conditions  the 
applicant  for  working  papers  must  present  a  definite  written 
promise  of  employment  in  which  the  character  of  the  work 
proposed  is  stated.  Here  again  Massachusetts  led.  As  early 
as  1888  she  required  an  employment  ticket.  This  was  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  practice  became  common. 
Now  the  work  proposed  must  meet  the  appraval  of  the  officials 
em.powered  to  issue  the  certificate,  and  in  the  best  systems  the 
applicant  must  submit  to  a  thorough  medical  examination  and 
must  be  certified  as  fit  to  undertake  the  specific  tasks  proposed. 
There  remains  considerable  variation  in  the  educational  re- 
quirements for  working  papers.  The  early  laws  merely  pro- 
vided that  the  child  applying  for  employment,  if  under  a  cer- 
tain age,  must  give  evidence  of  having  attended  school  for  a 
minimum  number  of  months,  usually  three,  of  the  preceding 
twelveJ  As  compulsory  attendance  laws  developed,  steadily 
advancing  the  minimum  period  of  schooling,  the  labor  laws 
were  kept  in  harmony  with  them,  until  in  most  of  the  northern 
states  all  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  under  sixteen 
if  not  employed  and  if  the  elementary  school  course  or  its 
equivalent  has  not  been  completed,  are  required  to  attend 
school  for  the  full  session  each  year.  In  certain  states.  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania,  for  example,  an  examination  as  to 
ability  to  read  and  write  was  required  in  addition  to  the  school 
attendance  record,  the  former  state  still  adhering  to  the  plan. 
In  Massachusetts,  where  the  importance  of  the  school  record 
has  been  stressed,  the  minimum  attainment  in  school  is  such 
knowledge  of  reading,  spelling,  and  writing  as  is  required  for 
the  completion  of  the  sixth  grade  in  the  local  public  schools. 
In  New  York,  where  the  examination  is  stressed,  the  school 
record  of  the  applicant  for  working  papers  must  show  that, 
if  under  fifteen,  he  has  completed  the  elementary  course  of 
eight  grades  or  its  equivalent.  Pennsylvania,  long  exceedingly 
lax  in  educational  standards  for  working  papers,  now  requires 
that  the  applicant,  if  under  sixteen,  must  have  completed  the 
work  of  the  sixth  grade.    In  Wisconsin  the  applicant,  if  under 


r 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  241 

seventeen,  must  have  completed  the  sixth  grade.^^  In  all  the 
states  here  considered  the  young  worker  who  has  not  finished 
the  equivalent  of  the  eighth  grade  of  the  elementary  school 
passes  automatically  into  the  continuation  school,  except  in 
Connecticut,  where  he  must  attend  evening  school,  if  one  is 
established. 

It  will  be  observed  that  New  York,  though  maintaining  at 
least  the  form  of  an  examination,  requires  of  the  applicant  for 
working  papers  a  longer  period  of  schooling  than  does  any 
other  state  in  thev  group  studied.  Indeed,  her  requirement  is 
not  exceeded  by  any  other  state  in  the  Union. 

There  is  less  uniformity  in  the  method  of  issuing  working 
papers  than  might  be  expected.  In  Connecticut  the  entire 
business  is  centered  in  the  State  Board  of  Education ;  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Pennsylvania  the  local  school  authorities  are 
charged  with  this  duty ;  in  New  York  the  local  board  of  health 
issues  the  papers;  and  in  Wisconsin  the  industrial  commission 
or  its  authorized  representative  must  act. 

Were  a  state  to  embody  in  its  requirements  for  working 
papers  the  highest  standards  thus  far  attained  in  actual  prac- 
tice, its  children  would  be  permitted  to  leave  school  for  labor 
when  the  following  conditions  had  been  met: 

1.  Certificate  to  be  issued  by  some  centralized  authority, 
either  by  state  officials  or  under  close  state  supervision,  to  all 
children  between  fourteen  and  seventeen  who  leave  school  to 
engage  in  work  of  any  kind. 

2.  Issue  of  such  certificates  only  to  those  who  have  com- 
pleted the  elementarj^  school  course,  unless  at  least  fifteen  years 
of  age. 

3.  Adequate  documentary  proof  of  age. 

4.  A  definite,  written  promise  of  suitable  employment. 

5.  A  medical  examination  showing  the  child  to  be  fit  to 
undertake  the  work  proposed. 

6.  Certificate  to  be  sent  by  office  of  issue  to  the  employer 
by  mail  and  to  be  returned  to  the  office  of  issue  in  the  same 
manner  on  termination  of  employment. 

7.  The  child  to  remain  in  school  until  the  papers  are  issued. 

As  to  vacation  permits  there  is  some  doubt.  Theoretically 
they  should  not  be  granted.    The  child  once  at  work  is  often 


21.  The  seventh  grade  after  July  1, 1920,  or  present  record  of  school  attend- 
ance for  eight  years. 


242   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

rehietant  to  return  to  school  at  the  close  of  the  long  vacation. 
Yet  the  practical  argument  in  favor  of  suitable  summer  em- 
ployment under  present  conditions  is  very  strong.  Perhaps 
the  solution  is  the  all-year  school,  but  until  the  child's  time  is 
well  occupied  throughout  the  summer,  the  vacation  working 
permit  seems  to  be  justified.  An  adequate  system  of  super- 
vision and  inspection  supported  by  a  permanent  census  should 
insure  a  prompt  return  of  summer  workers  at  the  opening  of 
school.  At  present  special  vacation  certificates  are  granted  in 
all  of  the  states  of  the  group  included  in  this  study. 

It  is  not  possible  to  determine  from  the  number  of  permits 
issued  annually  the  number  of  children  actually  employed  at 
any  one  time.  Frequently  a  child  will  hold  two  or  three  posi- 
tions in  a  single  year,  for  each  place  requiring  a  certificate.^^ 

At  present  the  tendency  is  in  the  direction  of  more  rather 
than  of  fewer  applications  for  working  papers.  The  rise  and 
fall  of  the  demand  for  child  labor  in  the  state  of  New  York, 
perhaps  typical  for  the  country  at  large,  during  the  past 
twenty  years  is  graphically  shown  in  the  following  diagram. 


nr             ■" 

IT                 7 

7^ 

y^V        ^^ 

-.^    X    J 

z     \^^ 

2        ^ 

r 

T              t 

i                   =.-: 

i-'^e  -4 

\  t 

— 

§111 


i   I 


%    i 


Diagram  2.  Showing  employment  certificates  issued  by  boards  of 
health  in  the  state  of  New  York,  1900-1920.  Does  not  include 
certificates  issued  for  summer  vacation  only. 


22.  For  example,  Paul  Houghton  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  between  Feb.  4,  1920, 
and  Feb.  16,  1921,  applied  for  and  received  eleven  certificates. 


SUMMAEY  AND  CONCLUSION  243 

Direct  state  enforcement  of  attendance  and  labor  regulations 
Very  naturally  local  government  was  emphasized  by  English- 
men in  America.  All  functions  that  did  not  require  the  re- 
sources and  authority  of  the  general  government  were  jealous- 
ly guarded  by  the  community.  The  Massachusetts  Act  of  1642, 
requiring  the  education  of  all  children  in  reading  and  in- 
dustry, was  administered  by  the  selectmen  of  the  several 
towns.  Schools,  established  in  accordance  ^\'ith  later  statutes, 
were  under  the  direction  and  control  of  committees.  Presently 
well  organized  state  school  systems  were  developed,  but  with 
large  responsibility  and  power  vested  in  local  units.  When, 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  state  legislatures 
began  to  enact  compulsory  attendance  laws,  enforcement  was 
quite  naturally  entrusted  to  local  authorities.  To  local  officials, 
also,  was  given  the  responsibility  of  enforcing  the  early  child 
labor  laws. 

For  various  reasons  the  administration  of  schqol  attendance 
and  child  labor  requirements  has  gradually  been  differentiated 
until  at  present  the  latter  are  usually  supervised  and  enforced 
by  state  agents  under  a  central  department,  board,  or  bureau 
of  the  state  government,  while  the  former  continue,  with  few 
exceptions,  under  local  control.  All  available  evidence  in- 
dicates that,  defective  as  the  enforcement  of  child  labor  laws 
often  is,  vastly  better  results  are  obtained  in  this  field  by  state 
agents  than  in  the  enforcement  of  attendance  by  local  author- 
ities, exception  being  made  of  the  larger  cities  where,  under 
highly  organized  administrative  machinery,  attendance  laws 
are  proving  to  be  the  best  measures  for  keeping  children  out 
of  illegal  labor. 

In  the  inauguration  of  state  enforcement  of  child  labor  laws 
leadership  again  falls  to  Massachusetts.  The  law  of  1866 
authorized  the  governor  to  prevent  the  illegal  employment  of 
children  through  the  state  constabulary.^^  General  H.  K. 
Oliver,  first  charged  ■^^dth  this  duty,  was  able  to  accomplish 
little,  yet  his  reports  locate  some  of  the  problems  of  child  labor, 
and  his  work  and  that  of  his  successors  throughout  the  state 
prepared  the  way  for  factory  inspection  inaugurated  in  1877. 


23.  For  law  and  discussion,  supra,  p.  57f. 


244      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Connecticut  was  a  close  second  to  Massachusetts  in  beginning 
a  program  of  state  enforcement.  Her  child  labor  law  of  1869 
directed  the  state  board  of  education  to  carry  out  the  pro- 
visions of  the  act  and  to  this  end  authorized  the  appointment 
of  an  agent  responsible  to  the  board  and  vested  with  the 
necessary  power  to  secure  enforcement.^*  Gradually  the  duties 
of  the  board  of  education  have  been  increased  and  its  powers 
extended  until  state  control  of  young  children  in  school  and 
in  employment  is  more  complete  in  Connecticut  than  elsewhere 
in  the  United  States. 

Of  the  other  states    included  in  this  study,    Pennsylvania 
enacted  her  first  child  labor  law  in  1848,  providing  for  state 
enforcing  officers  forty-one  years  later;  Wisconsin,  enacting 
her  first  measure  to  restrict  the  employment  of  children  in 
1877,  provided  in  a  limited  way  for  state  enforcement  in  1885 ; 
New  York  secured  her  first  protective  legislation  in  1886,  at 
once  establishing  a  system  of  factory  inspection  with  state- 
wide jurisdiction.     In  all  the  states  in  the  group,  elaborate 
systems  of  state  enforcement  of  child  labor  regulations  are 
now  in  operation  and,  compared  with  the  enforcement  of  the 
school  attendance  laws,  fairly  satisfactory  results  are  obtained. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  see  why  the  administration  of  school 
attendance  laws  remained  almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of 
local  officials  while  more  and  more  the  state  has  concerned  it- 
self Avith  those  regulations  more  directly  affecting  labor.     It 
has  been  shown  that  in  the  early  colonial  period  children  were 
under  the  same  means  of  control,  both  as  to  literary  education 
and  industry.    Legislators  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  ap- 
parently  assumed   that   children   not   employed   in   factories 
would  be  kept  in  school  by  their  parents  and,  wishing  to  as- 
sure the  factory  child  the  tools  of  learning,  provided  that  he 
might  not  be  employed  unless  he  had  first  fulfilled  the  attend- 
ance requirements.     Very  naturally,  enforcement  was  left  to 
local  communities,  usually  to  school  officials,  who  fairly  repre- 
sented those  most  intimately  connected  with  the  child's  wel- 


24.  Law  and  discussion,  supra,  p.  94f.  Two  men,  serving  successively  as 
agents  of  the  board,  bring  the  record  down  to  the  present  decade;  Henry 
M.  Cleveland  occupying  the  position  in  the  years  1869-1871,  Giles  Potter 
in  the  years  1872-1912. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  245 

fare.  Forces  the  operation  of  which  had  not  been  foreseen, 
poverty,  greed,  indifference,  parents'  traditional  rights  in 
children,  rendered  those  laws  inoperative.  In  Massachusetts 
the  State  Board  of  Education  sought  to  secure  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  attendance  requirements  at  the  hands  of  state 
officials,  but  since  education  had  been  confided  to  local  com- 
munities for  two  centuries,  and  since  no  sufficiently  powerful 
social  forces  demanded  a  departure  from  former  customs,  no 
action  was  taken.  When  labor  began  to  be  able  to  express^' 
itself,  it  demanded  that  young  children  be  excluded  from  fac- 
tories under  state  authority,  but,  less  sensitive  as  to  education, 
made  no  direct  demands  as  to  school  attendance.  Members  of 
the  labor  party  were  elected  to  the  law-making  body ;  political 
leaders  committed  themselves  to  the  labor  program ;  the  public 
attitude  towards  the  employer  changed;  the  legislature  grew 
sensitive  to  the  demand  that  the  laws  should  operate,  even 
against  the  immediate  financial  interests  of  manufacturers ;  and 
state  authority  was  invoked  to  administer  the  child  labor  laws. 
At  first  there  was  merely  a  weak,  ineffectual  method  of  factory 
visitation,  later  to  develop  into  the  vigorous  system  of  control 
now  in  operation. 

Partly  by  imitation,  partly  through  the  natural  order  of  de- 
velopment, the  methods  of  controlling  the  labor  and  school 
attendance  of  children  in  Massachusetts  came  to  prevail  in 
other  states.  Connecticut,  as  has  been  shown,  committed  her- 
self to  a  large  degree  of  state  administration  in  respect  to  both. 
Other  states,  like  Massachusetts,  early  adjusting  their  executive 
machinery  for  the  enforcement  of  child  labor  laws,  are  but 
slowly  proceeding  in  the  direction  of  state  control  of  education. 

An  expedient  quite  commonly  adopted  in  the  various  states, 
and  pointing  toward  state  supervision  of  attendance  laws,  is 
that  of  giving  the  state  department  of  education  authority  to 
Avithhold  from  any  community  not  complying  with  the  regula- 
tions a  portion  of  the  state  funds.  This  means  of  penalizing 
the  rebellious  or  indifferent  community  was  adopted  in  Massa- 
chusetts in  1865.  In  most  states  it  is  a  potential  means  of 
discipline  seldom  or  never  exercised.  Its  real  effectiveness  has 
been  demonstrated  in  New  York,  however,  where  for  many 
years  this  means  of  penalizing  recalcitrant  school  districts  has 


246      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

been  employed  with  satisfactory  results.^^  Here  a  force  of 
state  school  inspectors  keeps  the  state  department  in  fairly 
close  touch  with  the  field  at  large. 

Pennsylvania,  in  her  law  of  1915,  took  a  step  toward  state 
control  decidedly  in  advance  of  the  half-hearted  method  of 
withholding  state  funds.  In  case  any  district  neglects  to  en- 
force the  attendance  requirements  the  state  board  of  education 
is  authorized  to  appoint  attendance  officers  in  the  delinquent 
district  and  bring  the  law  into  operation;  the  salary  of  such 
officers  and  all  expenses  incurred  in  enforcement  being  paid 
by  the  state,  charged  against  the  district,  and  deducted  from 
the  district's  share  of  the  state  school  funds.^^ 

Direct  state  aid  to  education,  now  supplemented  under  special 
legislation  by  Federal  aid,  is  developing,  as  a  necessary  ac- 
companiment, state  inspectorial  and  supervisory  service.  It 
is  only  a  question  of  time  until  the  matter  of  attendance  will 
be  receiving  the  attention  of  such  special  officers,  the  old,  dis- 
credited local  machinery  will  either  be  abandoned  or,  more 
likely,  vitalized  by  state  supervision  and  cooperation,  and  the 
great  waste  of  non-attendance  will  be  eliminated. 

Federal  cooperation 

That  national  authority  is  essential  to  an  effective  campaign 
against  child  labor  and  in  support  of  universal  education  has 
long  been  apparent.  States  with  the  most  advanced  standards 
share  boundaries  with  those  notoriously  indifferent  to  the  best 
interests  of  children.  Entire  sections  of  the  country  have  been 
reluctant  to  remove  young  children  from  productive  employ- 
ment. The  educational  and  higher  industrial  opportunities  of 
a  child  have  been  determined  far  too  completely  by  the  locality 
in  which  he  chanced  to  be  born.  To  secure  a  degree  of  uniform- 
ity in  opportunity  and  in  standards.  Federal  interference  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  a  necessary  a*id  logical  step. 

Organised  labor  is  the  agency  to  v^hich,  more  than  to  any 
other,  credit  must  be  given  for  stimulating  national  interest 
in  the  fight  against  child  labor.  Ii '  its  first  constitution  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  dc^n    'ed  itself  in  favor  of  the 

.n 

25.  Supra,  p.  168. 

26.  Laws  of  1915,  No.  177.  Pennsylvania  is  now  establishing  state  super- 
vision of  attendance  and  has  several  inspectors  in  the  field. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  247 

complete  abolition  of  the  employment  of  children  under  four- 
teen years  of  age.^^  Consistently  this  organization  has  ad- 
vocated such  uniform  action  among  the  states,  supported  by 
Federal  amendment,  if  necessary,  as  would  insure  adequate 
protection  to  women  and  children  every^vhere.^^  It  has  entered 
actively  into  national  as  well  as  state  campaigns  having 
for  their  aim  more  favorable  educational  and  industrial 
conditions.^^ 

Cooperating  with  organized  labor,  often  guiding  its  forces, 
always  affording  the  benefit  of  scientific  foundation,  has  been 
a  considerable  group  of  students  of  practical  philanthropy  and 
social  economics.  By  means  of  books,  lectures,  and  popular  or 
semi-popular  magazine  articles,  public  opinion  was  led  to  the 
conclusion  that  child  labor  and  universal  education  were 
national  problems  requiring  the  supervision  and  general  con- 
trol of  the  Federal  government.  Every  university  and  college 
was  enlisted  in  the  work  of  propaganda;  courses  were  organ- 
ized, investigations  were  put  under  way.  University  settlements 
were  established,  all  tending  to  create  a  permanent  interest 
among  educated  people  in  the  modern  problems  of  child  wel- 
fare and  the  function  of  government  in  their  solution.^® 
Tangible  evidence  of  the  effectiveness  of  this  volunteer  work 
is  seen,  also,  in  the  Federal  Children's  Bureau,  established  as 
a  bureau  in  the  Department  of  Labor  in  1912,  and  since  then 
an  effective  official  agency  in  the  campaign  in  behalf  of 
children  and  women. ^^ 


27.  American  Federation  of  Labor,  1919,  p.  170.  This  plank,  adopted  in 
1881,  was  opposed  by  a  considerable  element  on  the  grounds  that  its  en- 
forcement would  be  an  interference  with  individual  rights.  Proceedings, 
1881,  p.  3. 

28.  E.  g.,  Proceedings  American  Federation  of  Labor,  1889,  p.  23;  1890, 
p.  40;  1910,  p.  224. 

29.  As  early  as  1887  this  organization  was  demanding  that  the  teaching  of 
government,  Americanizatior  be  included  in  the  compulsory  education 
program.    Ibid.,  1887,  p.  30;  1888,  p.  27. 

30.  Men  and  women  to  the  n  .mber  of  a  score  or  more  attained  nation-wide 
prominence  as  leaders  in  the  practical  studies  and  in  field  work;  among 
them,  Owen  K.  Lovejoy,  seer,  iry  since  1907  of  the  National  Child  Labor 
Committee,  Samuel  McCune  dsay,  first  secretary  of  that  organization, 
Florence  Kelley,  active  in  the  Consumers^  League,  and  Julia  Lathrop,  now 
Chief  of  the  Federal  Children's  Bureau,  have  been  outstanding  figures. 

31.  Bureau  in  Dpt.  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  1912;  transferred  to  Dpt.  of 
Labor,  1913. 


248   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

The  first  serious  consideration  given  child  labor  in  the 
United  States  Congress  was  in  1907,  when  the  Beveridge- 
Parsons  bill  was  under  discussion.  This  bill  was  not  permitted 
to  come  to  a  vote  in  either  House,  owing  to  a  wide-spread  con- 
viction that  it  was  unconstitutional.^^  In  1915  a  bill  similar 
in  character  passed  the  House  of  Representatives  but  did  not 
reach  a  vote  in  the  Senate.^^  The  following  year  this  measure, 
then  known  as  the  Keating-Owen  Bill,  passed  both  Houses  by 
large  majorities,  and  went  into  effect  September  1,  1917.^* 

This  law  was  permitted  to  operate  for  only  nine  months,  but 
during  that  time  its  effectiveness  was  demonstrated  in  widely 
separated  sections  of  the  country.^^  It  was  declared  uncon- 
stitutional in  the  Federal  Court  of  the  Western  District  of 
North  Carolina,  Judge  Boyd  presiding,  and  on  June  3,  1918, 
the  decision  was  affirmed  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
four  of  the  nine  justices  dissenting.^^ 

The  Keating-Owen  law  was  based  upon  the  power  of  Con- 
gress to  regulate  commerce  and  prohibited  interstate  commerce 
in  articles  in  the  production  of  which  the  labor  of  children 
had  entered.  A  new  law,  based  upon  the  power  of  Congress 
to  tax,  was  enacted,  going  into  operation  on  April  25,  1919. 
On  August  19  of  that  year,  this  measure  was  declared  uncon- 
stitutional in  the  same  court  that  passed  upon  its  predecessor. 
The  case  has  not,  at  this  writing,  reached  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  pending  its  decision  the  law  is  in  operation  throughout 
the  country. 

Whether  or  not  the  present  attempt  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment to  control  the  labor  of  children  is  successful,  is  of  rela- 
tively small  consequence.  The  significant  point  is.  that  the 
American  people  are  determined  that  the  abuses  of  child  labor 
are  to  cease  and  that  the  national  government  must  cooperate 
with  the  progressive  states  in  fixing  standards  and  enforcing 
requirements.     If  constitutional  limitations,  fixed  a  century 

32.  Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education,  <  *  Child  Labor. ' ' 

33.  The  Palmer-Owen  Bill. 

34.  See  Thomas  I.  Parkinson,  ' '  A  Brief  for  the  Keating-Owen  Bill, ' '  Child 
Labor  Bulletin,  February,  1916. 

35.  Child  Labor  Bulletin,  Feb.,  1918,  p.  208 ;  Nov.,  1918,  p.  160. 

36.  Ibid. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  249 

and  a  quarter  ago,  interfere  with  the  program,  an  amendment 
will  clear  away  the  obstructions. 

Though  the  Federal  government  has  not  entered  actively 
into  the  campaign  for  universal  compulsory  education,  it  has  ^ 
given  encouragement  through  such  measures  as  the  Smith- 
Hughes  law.  Federal  aid,  available  under  certain  conditions, 
is  ser^nng  to  stimulate  the  creation  of  vocational  and  con- 
tinuation schools,  attendance  upon  which  is  usually  compul- 
sory within  certain  age  limits.^^  For  example,  Iowa  is  es- 
tablishing continuation  schools  compulsory  upon  communities 
where  fifteen  or  more  children  are  employed  on  certificate,  and 
requiring  attendance  upon  them.  This  advanced  step  on  the 
part  of  a  state  always  conservative  in  school  legislation  was 
taken  in  response  to  the  invitation  to  share  in  the  Smith- 
Hughes  funds.^®  It  seems  probable  that  Congress  will  present- 
ly be  vested  with  such  power  as  will  enable  it  to  establish 
minimum  educational  standards  throughout  the  Union,  and  to 
prevent  the  general  employment  of  children  until  they  are  at 
least  fourteen  years  of  age. 

Penalties 

The  community  failing  to  support  a  school  in  accordance 
mth  the  provisions  of  the  Massachusetts  legislation  of  1647 
was  to  be  mulcted  to  the  extent  of  five  English  pounds.  This 
was  a  heavy  penalty,  for  the  total  salary  of  a  professional 
schoolmaster  was  only  five  or  six  times  that  amount.  The 
modern  survival  of  this  penalty  is  found  in  the  common 
practice  of  withholding  from  a  district  that  fails  to  comply 
mth  attendance  or  other  school  requirements  a  part  or  all  of 
the  general  state  funds.^® 

It  was  provided,  also,  in  the  early  Colonial  legislation,  that 
officials  failing  to  enforce  the  school  laws  might  be  fined  ac- 
cording to  the  discretion  of  the  court.    The  principle  of  this 


37.  Third  An.  Bpt.  Fed.  Board  for  Voc.  Ed.,  p.  21. 

38.  Laws  of  Iowa,  1919,  chs.  34,  139.  Missouri  is  establishing  continuation 
schools  and  is  not  only  requiring  the  attendance  of  children  under  sixteen, 
lawfully  employed,  but  includes  all  under  eighteen,  whether  employed  or 
not,  if  they  have  not  completed  the  elementary  school  course  and  are  not  in 
attendance*  upon  any  other  school.  Laws  of  Missouri,  1919,  amending  Art. 
6,  ch.  106,  of  the  statutes. 

39.  For  example,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  supra,  pp.  168,  193. 


250   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

penalty  very  frequently  survives  in  modern  legislation,  though 
there  is  little  evidence  of  its  application.*^ 

Penalties  for  the  violation  of  modern  attendance  laws  never 
fall. upon  the  child,  except  that  in  case  of  incorrigibility  he 
may  be  committed  to  a  school  suited  to  his  needs.  Yet  in  the 
earlier  nineteenth  century  legislation,  truant  children  might 
be  fined  or  even  committed  to  prison.*^ 

In  general,  school  attendance  laws  have  always  carried  light- 
er penalties  than  have  those  regulating  the  labor  of  children. 
There  is  a  well-marked  tendency  also  to  give  a  delinquent 
parent  every  opportunity  to  return  his  child  to  school  and  thus 
avoid  the  penalty.*^  Experience  has  shown  that  a  relatively 
small  fine,  with  a  jail  sentence  at  the  option  of  the  court,  will 
serve,  in  most  cases,  to  insure  the  cooperation  of  parents  in 
keeping  children  in  school.  A  large  fine  is  a  distinct  handicap, 
as  few  judges  will  impose  it  upon  parents  of  small  means. 

Until  well  toward  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  em- 
ployers were  rather  carefully  protected  from  the  penalties  of 
child  labor  laws.  Not  only  was  authority  to  prosecute  left  to 
officials  not  likely  to  have  any  vital  interest  in  enforcement,*^ 
but  it  was  frequently  required  that  the  prosecution  prove  that 
the  violation  had  been  ''willfully  and  knowingly*'  committed.** 

In  attempts  to  encourage  enforcement  some  of  the  early  laws 
offered  a  portion  of  the  penalties  recovered  to  the  prosecutor.*^ 
In  at  least  one  instance  it  was  provided  that  half  of  the  penalty 
recovered  should  go  to  the  child  illegally  employed.*^ 

Of  the  states  included  in  this  study,  Pennsylvania  offers 


40.  Wisconsin  provides  that  any  teacher  or  school  officer  failing  to  make 
the  required  reports  on  attendance  is  liable  to  a  fine  not  to  exceed  twenty- 
five  dollars,  half  the  sum  recovered  going  to  the  person  bringing  action, 
half  to  the  district.    Laws  of  Wis.,  1907. 

41.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1850,  ch.  294;  1852,  ch.  283.  Conn.  Bev. 
Statutes,  1866,  ch.  4. 

42.  The  first  compulsory  attendance  law  of  Pennsylvania,  1895,  provided 
for  a  fine  upon  delinquent  parents  of  a  sum  not  to  exceed  two  dollars,  but 
made  provision  for  appeal  and  provided,  further,  that  before  such  fine  was 
imposed  the  offending  parent  should  be  notified  of  his  liability  in  writing 
and  given  opportunity  to  comply  with  the  law.  Laws  of  Penn.,  1895,  No.  53. 

43.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1842,  ch.  60.    New  York  Laws,  1896,  ch.  384. 

44.  New  Yorlc  Laws,  1886,  ch.  409. 

45.  Mass.  Acts  and  Besolves,  1842,  ch.  60.    Penn.  Laws,  1849,  No.  415. 

46.  Penn.  Laws,  1848,  No.  227. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  251 

mildest  treatment  to  parents  violating  the  attendance  law,  the 
penalty  for  the  first  offense  being  a  fine  of  not  over  two  dol- 
lars, Avith  a  maximum  of  five  dollars  for  each  subsequent  of- 
fense. A  jail  sentence  of  not  over  five  days  is  provided  in 
case  of  failure  to  pay  the  fine.  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts 
fix  no  minimum  penalty,  but  the  maximum  in  the  former  is 
five  dollars,  in  the  latter  twenty  dollars.  In  New  York  a  first 
offense  is  punishable  by  a  fine  of  five  dollars  or  a  jail  sentence 
of  five  days,  with  a  fine  of  not  over  fifty  dollars  or  a  jail 
sentence  of  not  over  thirty  days,  or  both  fine  and  imprison- 
ment, for  each  subsequent  offense.  The  Wisconsin  law  fixes 
as  the  penalty  a  fine  of  not  less  than  five  dollars  nor  more 
than  fifty  dollars,  with  costs,  or  imprisonment  for  not  over 
three  months,  or  both  fine  and  imprisonment. 

For  violation  of  the  child  labor  laws.  New  York  and  Massa- 
chusetts provide  the  most  drastic  penalties.  In  New  York  any 
person  employing  a  child  in  violation  of  the  law  may  be  fined 
for  the  first  offense  not  less  than  twenty-five  nor  more  than 
fifty  dollars  and  for  subsequent  offenses  not  less  than  fifty  nor 
more  than  two  hundred  dollars.  In  Massachusetts  no  minimum 
penalty  is  fixed,  but  the  fine  may  be  as  high  as  three  hundred 
dollars,  or,  if  the  court  elects,  the  offender  may  be  sent  to  jail 
for  not  over  six  months,  or  there  may  be  both  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. For  each  day  of  illegal  employment  after  notice  has 
been  given,  the  offender  is  liable  to  a  fine  of  not  less  than 
twenty  nor  more  than  one  hundred  dollars. 

There  is  a  tendency  to  fix  penalties  with  widely  separate 
minima  and  maxima,  leaving  large  discretionary  powers  to  the 
courts.  As  juvenile  and  children's  courts  develop,  still  larger 
discretionary  powers  may  be  expected,  the  objective  being  the 
education  of  both  parents  and  children  rather  than  their 
punishment. 

Decrease  in  illiteracy 

Unfortunately  little  reliable  material  is  available  upon  which 
conclusions  as  to  the  actual  literacy  of  the  population  of  the 
several  states  may  be  based.  The  most  reliable  sources  are 
the  several  Federal  censuses,  but  these  leave  much  to  be  de- 
sired. The  first  census  attempting  to  gather  information  on 
this  point  is  that  of  1870.    A  comparison  of  the  proportion  of 


252   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

illiteracy  reported  for  that  year  and  for  the  year  1910  is  pre- 
sented below. 

TABLE  II 

Illiteracy  in  the  United  States  and  in  the  five  states  included  in  this  study 
in  the  years  1870*7  and  1910*8 

Total  population  Per  cent  of  illiteracy 

1870                  1910  1870  1910 

United  States                    38,558,371  91,972,266  14.6*9  7.7 

Connecticut                              537,454        1,114,756  5.5  6.0 

Massachusetts                       1,457,351         3,366,416  6.7  5.2 

New  York                             4,382,759        9,113,614  5.5  5.5 

Pennsylvania                        3,521,951         7,665,111  6.3  5.9 

Wisconsin                              1,054,670        2,333,860  5.2  3.2 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  the  forty  years  between  the 
censuses  compared,  the  proportion  of  illiteracy  among  persons 
ten  years  of  age  and  over  in  the  United  States  as  a  whole  has 
been  reduced  practically  one-half.  With  the  single  exception 
of  Wisconsin,  there  has  been  little  change  in  any  of  the  states 
included  in  this  study.  These  states  have  all  received  large 
numbers  of  immigrants  during  this  period,  many  of  whom  have 
been  unable  to  read  and  write  in  any  language.  While  it  is 
certain  that  the  relatively  high  per  cent  of  illiteracy  now  pre- 
vailing in  these  states  cannot  be  laid  entirely  to  the  immigra- 
tion of  illiterate  adults,  Table  III  suggests  the  significance  of 
this  element. 

TABLE  III 

Partial  classification  of  illiterates  ten  years  of  age  and  over  in  the  group  of 
states  included  in  this  study,  based  on  census  of  1910 

All  Classes        Native  Parentage    Foreign  Born  Whites 
Illiterate  Percent  Illiterate  Percent     Illiterate      Percent 


Connecticut 

53,665 

6.0 

1,707 

0.5 

49,202 

15.4 

Massachusetts 

141,541 

5.2 

3,428 

0.4 

129,412 

17.7 

New  York 

406,020 

5.5 

21,292 

0.8 

362,025 

13.7 

Pennsylvania 

354,290 

5.9 

46,054 

1.4 

279,668 

20.1 

Wisconsin 

57,769 

3.2 

3,223 

0.6 

43,662 

8.7 

Since  data  as  to  literacy  are  based  upon  answers  given  orally 
to  the  enumerators  and  not  upon  any  test  or  other  evidence, 
it  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  Federal  census  gives  a  generous 
interpretation  of  existing  conditions.    The  reports  of  the  Sur- 

47.  Compendium  of  the  Ninth  Census,  pp.  8  and  456. 

48.  Abstract  of  the  Thirteenth  Census,  p.  245. 

49.  Probably  incorrect.     Census  of  1880  reports  total  illiteracy  of  17  per 
cent. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 


253 


geon  General  relative  to  the  literacy  of  the  men  coming  into 
the  army  under  the  selective  draft  indicate  that  a  much  larger 
proportion  of  the  population  than  that  shown  by  the  census 
is  unable  to  make  intelligent  use  of  the  printed  or  written 
page.  It  is  clear  that,  even  in  the  most  progressive  states,  the 
battle  against  illiteracy  is  not  yet  won. 

Even  with  the  imperfect  data  available,  it  can  be  shoAvn  that 
illiteracy  in  the  states  considered  has  not  decreased  at  such  a 
rate  as  to  make  it  comparable,  inversely,  with  the  increase  in 
school  attendance.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  even  in 
these  progressive  states  a  large  proportion  of  the  children  and 
youth  of  school  age  is  not  under  any  kind  of  instruction. 

TABLE  IV 

Showing  average  percentage  of  population  of  usiiul  school  age,  five  to 
eighteen,  reported  in  attendance  at  periods  indicated,  with  illiteracy  of 
population  ten  years  of  age  and  upward.  Based  upon  census  returns  and 
reports  of  TJ.  S.  Bureau  of  Education 


1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

1910 

1915 

8 

S 

8 

^ 

§ 

s 

t^ 

>^ 

a 

>^ 

% 

^ 

c 

>> 

0 

►» 

d 

S 

S 

o 

S 

o^ 

S 

o 

cd 

DIVISION 

1 

'2 
1 

S 

1 

1 

'd 

03 

1 

s 

< 

< 

M 

< 

M 

< 

M 

< 

M 

< 

Connecticut 

45.7 

5.5 

47.2 

5.7 

47.6 

5.2 

53.5 

5.9 

57.2 

6.0 

63.9 

Massachusetts 

53.6 

6.7 

54.5 

6.5 

53.4 

6.2 

58.7 

5.9 

58.4 

5.2 

61.2 

New  York 

39.1 

5.5 

42.8 

5.5 

43.6 

5.5 

49.2 

5.5 

53.5 

5.5 

56.4 

Pennsylvania 

51.2 

6.3 

47.7 

7.1 

46.5 

6.7 

50.8 

6.1 

53.2 

5.9 

57.1 

Wisconsin 

36.7 

5.2 

38.4 

5.8 

39.7 

6.7 

50.4 

4.7 

50. 

3.2 

54.1 

The  change  in  attendance  during  the  period  1870-1915  is 
graphically  indicated  by  Diagram  III,  page  254.  There  would 
be  little  variation  in  a  curve  showing  the  decrease  of  illiteracy 
during  the  same  period  in  this  particular  group  of  states. 


Continuation  or  part  time  schools 

No  phase  of  recent  educational  development  is  more  striking 
than  this.  The  part-time  school  is,  of  course,  an  ancient  in- 
stitution employed  in  Germany  and  England,  and  later  in 
certain  industrial  centers  in  America,  to  give  the  working  child 
a  meager  training  in  the  rudiments.  To-day  the  part-time 
school  is  concerned  with  the  child  who  has  already  mastered 
the  tool  subjects,  has  passed  well  into  adolescence,  and  is  leav- 


254      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 
65 


eo 


55 


50 


49 


AO 


35 


1 

C' 

-      -    4^ 

7 

/        ^  ■   * 

-,L         y     -^' 

^         ^2 

■  ''•^-  ^    J.        ^         f    ' 

s-                  ^'^       y^       ^'  j! 

^          :/     i- 

■-                  J     Z^  7 

""'••                 7^.-7    ''■" 

"'l:.                Z^^2 

,^^                ••'    _1 

I_                      ^^^_         

Tl 

^"^       -.^ 

• 

^^                                t _ 

sx""-                  ^..             

•       ^'- 

_  ^ 

?' 

i 


2        m 


2        ^       ^ 


Diagram  3.  The  percentage  of  school  population  between  ages  five 
and  eighteen  actually  in  attendance  at  periods  indicated:  1,  Con- 
necticut; 2,  Massachusetts;  3,  New  York;  4,  Pennsylvania;  5, 
Wisconsin. 

ing  school  for  remunerative  employment  or  perhaps  to  learn 
a  trade. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  modern  part-time  school  to  keep  the 


SUMMAKY  AND  CONCLUSION 


255 


youth  under  educational  influences  until  he  has  almost  reached 
maturity  and  has  become  fairly  established  in  habits  of  thought 
and  action.  The  courses  of  study  are  designed  to  appeal  to  his 
vocational  interests  so  that  from  this  center  there  may  be 
built  up  in  the  young  citizen  those  ideals  which  society  has 
found  most  imperative. 

Massachusetts  has  the  honor  of  being  the  first  American 
state  seriously  to  consider  the  industrial  needs  of  her  youth,'^ 
but  less  conservative  Wisconsin  put  in  operation  the  first  com- 
pulsory part-time  or  continuation  day-schools  in  the  United 
States.  After  observing  this  experiment  for  four  years  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1915  made  provision  for  a  state  system  of  com- 
pulsory schools,  to  be  followed  soon  by  other  states  until  in 


9  1 

?0 

/ 

to 

f 

la 

i 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

\ 

L 

n 

_ 

Diagram  4.  The  legal  establishment  of 
state  systems  of  part-time  or  continua- 
tion schools  with  compulsory  attendance 
of  working  children. 


50.  Supra,  p.  76ff. 


256       SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

1920  no  fewer  than  twenty-one  states  have  made  legal  pro- 
vision for  some  sort  of  part-time  school  attendance  upon  which 
is  compulsory  for  certain  adolescents  not  receiving  instruction 
in  full  time  schools.  The  following  diagram  indicates  the 
rapid  development  of  this  means  of  education  during  the  clos- 
ing years  of  the  decade. 

America  has  borrowed  freely  from,  the  German  states  in  the 
development  of  her  ideals  of  continuation  education.  There 
is  a  decided  tendency,  hoAvever,  to  organize  these  schools  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  public  school  system,  the  local  boards 
of  education  being  made  responsible  for  their  organization  and 
management.^^  Usually  there  is  an  advisory  board  represent- 
ing the  local  trades  and  industries,  either  appointed  by  the 
local  board  of  education  or  closely  connected  with  it  by  other 
relations.  The  state,  in  all  the  systems  examined,  gives  gener- 
ous aid  and  the  Smith-Hughes  funds  are  made  available  when 
requirements  are  met.  The  states  retain  a  considerable  degree 
of  control  over  these  schools,  indicating  a  movement  towards 
more  centralized  administration.  Outside  the  larger  cities  of 
Wisconsin  the  continuation  schools  are  so  new  that  standards 
are  not  yet  well  established.  The  classes  usually  meet  in  rooms 
not  well  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  instruction,  and  equipment 
for  industrial  work  is  often  lacking.  With  the  further  develop- 
ment of  the  junior  high  school  more  adequate  provision  will 
doubtless  be  made  for  this  type  of  education. 

Outlook 

The  supervision  and  control  of  the  labor  and  education  of 
children  in  these  five  states  must  not  be  regarded  as  typical 
for  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  but  rather  as  indicative  of 
the  national  attitude.  It  may  reasonably  be  expected  that  the 
standards  already  attained  by  this  group  of  states  will  be 
reached  by  the  most  backward  groups  in  a  relatively  short 
time.  In  none  of  these  states  may  a  child  engage  in  remunera- 
tive employment,  except  it  be  in  agriculture  or  in  domestic 
service,  until  he  is  fourteen  years  of  age.    In  all,  he  must  re- 


51.  In  Wisconsin  there  has  been  heated  discussion  over  the  relative  merits  of 
single  and  dual  boards  of  control.  Here  industrial  education,  including 
part-time  education,  has  been  kept  more  distinctly  separate  from  the  regular 
public  schools  than  elsewhere.     Supra,  p.  220ff. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  257 

main  in  school  until  he  is  sixteen  unless  legally  employed;  in 
one  state  in  the  group,  Wisconsin,  the  period  of  compulsory 
schooling  is  extended  to  seventeen;  in  another.  New  York,  it 
is  eighteen.  In  four  of  the  five  states  the  child  who  leaves  the 
full-time  school  to  go  to  work  must  remain  under  educational 
influences  until  at  least  sixteen,  even  though  regularly  em- 
ployed, attendance  upon  part-time  schools  being  compulsory. 
In  addition  to  a  minimum  age  for  employment,  all  of  these 
states  have  established  certain  minimum  educational  stand- 
ards, one,  New  York,  forbidding  the  employment  of  any  child 
under  fifteen  unless  he  has  completed  the  elementary  school 
course. 

It  appears  that  in  the  near  future  all  children  of  normal 
ability  will  be  required  to  complete  a  school  course  of  at  least 
eight  years  before  going  to  work,  and  that  after  entering  upon 
employment  they  will  be  required  to  attend  continuation 
schools  for  two  or  three  years  longer.  Since  the  upper  years 
of  the  present  elementary  course  are  giving  way  to  secondary 
work,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  practically  all  children  will 
presently  have  the  advantage  of  at  least  two  years  of  secondary 
schooling  before  entering  upon  regular  employment  and  the 
more  highly  specialized  work  of  the  part-time  school. 

In  certain  portions  of  the  country  where  standards  of  educa- 
tion and  emplojnnent  have  been  notably  low,  the  realization 
of  this  program  might  appear  remote,  but  since  the  Federal 
government  is  definitely  committed  to  a  policy  of  interference 
Avith  the  employment  of  young  children  and  to  the  support  of 
special  types  of  education,  the  process  of  leveling  up  to  the 
progressive  standards  developed  by  the  more  favored  group 
of  states  will  doubtless  be  rapid.  That  the  movement  to  pro- 
tect children  and  insure  for  them  a  longer  period  of  educa- 
tion of  a  type  adapted  to  their  industrial  needs,  is  not  confined 
in  the  United  States  is  evidenced  by  the  English  Education 
Act  of  1918,  worked  out  while  the  country  was  still  engaged  in 
bitter  war.^^  That  it  is  international  in  scope  may  be  proven 
by  the  "Draft  Convention"  of  the  International  Labor  Con- 
ference of  the  League  of  Nations.^^ 


52.  See  I.  L.  Kandel,  Education  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  1919. 

53.  The  American  Child,  Nov.,  1919,  p.  186ff. 


258   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Prom  the  *' Statute  of  Labourers''  of  Edward  HI  to  the 
Keating-Owens  act  there  may  be  traced  the  relatively  steady 
development  of  an  ideal.  It  seems  a  far  stretch  from  the  act 
of  Henry  IV,  in  the  year  1405,  providing  that  attendance  at 
school  may  exempt  a  child  from  the  penalties  of  the  law  re- 
quiring all  children  of  the  non-landholding  classes  to  be  regu- 
larly employed,  to  the  modem  provisions  that  all  children 
must  remain  under  educational  influences  until  physical  ma- 
turity is  reached.  But  the  way  is  marked  very  definitely  by 
the  great  statutes  of  Henry  and  Elizabeth,  by  the  Massachu- 
setts law  of  1642,  by  the  early  attempts  of  the  states  to  control 
the  labor  of  children,  and  by  the  epoch-making  battles  of  the 
nineteenth  century  in  support  of  free  schools  with  compulsory 
attendance  thereon.  In  this  period  the  conception  of  govern- 
ment has  changed  utterly  among  English  speaking  people; 
ideals  as  to  the  child's  relations  to  industry  and  to  education 

"/Tiave  almost  exactly  reversed  themselves;  yet  there  remains 
constant  the  principle  that  the  welfare  of  the  state  demands 

;  a  citizenship  with  established  habits  of  industry  and  thrift; 

I   that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to  require  the  formation  of 

i  such  habits;  and  that  to  secure  these  ends  a  certain  degree 

j  of  public  control  of  young  children  in  regard  to  their  labor 

I  and  training  is  essential. 

l-^>'The  early  English  laws  were  enacted  by  the  property  owners 
for  the  control  of  the  laboring  class  only  just  emerging  from 
serfdom.  Much  of  the  modern  legislation  in  behalf  of  children 
has  been  forced  upon  the  employer  by  enfranchised  labor  ren- 
dered independent  or  at  least  formidably  influential  through 
organization.  The  instrument  once  employed  by  autocracy  to 
control  a  subordinate  class  now,  in  the  hands  of  democracy, 
is  serving  to  secure  to  all  children  equality  of  opportunity  in 
the  struggle  for  industrial  and  intellectual  freedom. 


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House,  1845,  No.  50;  1849,  No.  95;  1851,  No.  179;  1866,  No.  98. 
Senate,  1844,  No.  41;  1855,  No.  3;  1856,  No.  3;  1868,  No.  21; 
1869,  No.  44;  1873,  No.  1;  1874,  No.  33;  1875,  No.  50. 
State  Board  of  Education,  Reports,  1838,  1839,  1842,  1845,  1847, 
1849,  1850,  1853,  1862,  1863,  1864,  1865,  1868,  1869,  1870,  1871, 
1872,  1874,  1880,  1882,  1886,  1887,  1889,  1891,  1895,  1897. 


Not  specifically  listed  elsewhere  in  bibliography. 


262      SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

State  Board   of  Labor  and  Industry,  Eeports,  1914,   1915,  1916, 

1917,  1918,  1919. 
New  York. 

Department  of  Education,  Eeports,  including  reports  of  Superin- 
tendent of  Public  Instruction,  1832,  1849,  1852,  1875,  1887,  1890, 

1893,  1896,  1904,  1906,  1907,  1908,  1909,  1911,  1912,  1913,  1914, 

1916. 
Department   of   Labor,   Eeports,   including  reports   of   Bureau   of 

Statistics  of  Labor,  1884,  1886,  1911,  1913. 
Factory  Investigating  Commission,  Eeports,  1912,  1913,  1915. 
Laws,  1831,  1853,  1867,  1874,  1886,  1887,  1889,  1892,  1894,  1895, 

1896,  1901,  1903,  1905,  1907,  1908,  1909,  1910,  1912,  1913,  1915, 

1936,  1917,  1918,  1919. 
Legislative  Documents  not  otherwise  listed. 

Assembly  documents,  1832,  No.  308;  1836,  No.  233;  1853,  No. 
94;  1855,  No.  3;  1886,  No.  2. 

Senate  Journal,  1849;  Senate  documents,  1889,  No.  40. 
Eeinhardt  Commission,  Eeport,  1896. 
Pennsylvania. 

Bulletins  Bureau  of  Vocational  Education,  No.  5,  No.  8. 

Bureau  of  Industrial  Statistics,  Eeports,  1873,  1874,  1885,  1886, 

1892. 
Education  Department,  Eeports,  1837,  1844,  1848,  1853,  1857,  1867, 

1870,  1871,  1873,  1874,  1880,  1881,  1891,  1892,  1893,  1894,  1901, 

1907,  1909,  1914. 

Factory  Inspector,  Eeports,  1893,  1894,  1899,  1900,  1902,  1904,  1906, 

1908,  1909,  1912. 

Laws,  1834,  1848,  1849,  1855,  1887,  1889,  1893,  1895,  1897,  1899, 
1901,  1905,  1907,  1909,  1911,  1913,  1915. 
Wisconsin. 

Bureau  Labor  Statistics,  Eeports,  1884,  1886,  1889,  1898,  1900. 
Department  of  Education,  Eeports,  10th,  13th,  16th,  19th,  1869, 

1871,  1873,  1874,  1880,  1886,  1892,  1896,  1904,  1905. 
Industrial   Commission,   Eeport   on   Allied   Functions,   1914,   1917, 

1918. 
Industrial  Education,  Bulletins  of  State  Board,  No.  3,  1916;  No, 

12,  1916. 
Laws,  1873,  1878,  1879,  1883,  1887,  1889,  1891,  1895,  1899,  1901, 

1903,  1907,  1911,  1913,  1915,  1918. 
Legislative  Documents. 

Assembly  Journal,  1871,  1889. 
Senate  Journal,  1870. 
Steiner,  Bernard  C,  History  of  Education  in  Connecticut.     1893. 
Stockwell,  Thomas  B.,  History  of  Public  Education  in  Ehode  Island.  1876. 
Strong,  John,  History  of  Secondary  Education  in  Scotland.     1909. 
Tawney,  E.  H.,  The  Agrarian  Problem  in  the  Sixteenth  Century.     1912. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  263 

Towles,  John  K.,  Factory  Legislation  of  Bhode  Island,  in  Am.  Econ. 
Assn.,  3d  series.  Volume  9. 

Toynbee,  Arnold,  The  Industrial  Eevolution  in  England.     Edition  1896. 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  Reports  of. 

United  States  Census,  9,  13. 

United  States  Department  of  Labor,  Children's  Bureau,  Publications. 

University  of  State  of  New  York,  Bulletin  No.  631.     1917. 

Updegraff,  Harlan,  Origin  of  the  Moving  School  in  Massachusetts.     1908. 

Watertown  Records,  Published  1894. 

Weber,  Samuel  Edwin,  The  Charity  School  Movement  in  Colonial  Penn- 
sylvania.    1905. 

Weedon,  William  B.,  Economic  History  of  New  England.     1891. 

Weyl,  Walter,  The  New  Democracy.     1916. 

Whittelsey,  Sarah  Scovill,  Massachusetts  Labor  Legislation.     1900. 

Wickersham,  James  P.,  The  History  of  Education  in  Pennsylvania.     1886. 


VITA 

The  author  of  this  dissertation,  Forest  Chester  Ensign,  was 
born  in  Defiance  County,  Ohio,  March  22,  1867.  He  received 
his  early  education  in  the  district  schools,  and  in  a  private 
normal  school  at  Fayette,  Ohio.  In  1895  he  was  graduated 
from  the  Iowa  State  Normal  School,  and  in  1897  from  the 
College  of  Liberal  Arts  of  the  University  of  Iowa.  He  taught 
in  the  Rural  Schools  during  the  year  1892-1893.  He  served 
as  High  School  Principal  first  in  Iowa  City,  then  in  Council 
Bluffs  during  the  years  1897-1905,  resigning  in  the  latter  year 
to  become  University  Inspector  of  High  Schools.  In  1911  he  be- 
came Registrar  and  Examiner  at  the  University  of  Iowa  and 
served  in  this  capacity  and  as  Dean  of  Men  until  1915,  when  he  be- 
came Professor  in  Education  in  the  same  institution.  He  was 
registered  for  part-time  work  in  the  Graduate  College  of  the 
University  of  Iowa  during  the  years  1897-1900.  and  1905-1911, 
and  was  granted  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1900.  He 
was  a  student  at  Harvard  during  the  summer  session  of  1905, 
and  at  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  during  the  year 
1915-1916  and  the  summer  sessions  of  1916  and  1917. 

His  principal  publications  are  as  follows: 

The  Care  of  the  Insane  in  Iowa.     Bulletin  of  Iowa  State  Institutions, 

Vol.  II,  No.  1,  1900. 
County  and  City  Prisons  in  Iowa.     Iowa  Conference  of  Charities  and 

Correction,  Proceedings,  8:55-62,  1905. 
The    State   University   and   the   Public    High   School.      Iowa   Alumnus, 

5:173-177,  1908. 
The  Accredited  High  School.     29p.    Bulletin  of  the  State  University  of 

Iowa,  n.  s.  185,  1909. 
County  and  City  Prisons  in  Iowa.     Iowa  Conference  of  Charities  and 

Correction,  Proceedings,  10:39-52,  1909. 
The  North  Central  Association.    Midland  Schools,  May  1909. 
Eelation  of  our  Educational  System  to  the  Problems  of  Poverty.     Iowa 

Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  Proceedings,  12:43-45,   1910. 
Recent  Social  Legislation  in  Iowa.     Iowa  Conference  of  Charities  and 

Correction,  Proceedings,  13:15-21,  1911. 
State   Supervision  of  County  and  Municipal  Jails   and   Prisons.     Iowa 

Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  Proceedings,  14:115-122,  1912. 
A  Quantitative  or  a  Qualitative  Standard.    Iowa  State  Teachers  Associa- 
tion, Proceedings,  58:242-245,  1912. 
An  Inspector's  Observations  of  High  School  History  Teaching.     Miss- 
issippi Valley  Historical  Association,  Proceedings,  6:255-56,  1913. 
Religious  Education  and  the  Public  School  System.    lieligiotis  Education, 

10:549-58,  1915. 
Parent-Teacher   Associations   in   Iowa.      University   of   Iowa   Extension 

Bulletin,  No.  42,  1918. 
Some  Post-War  Problems  in  Education.  Iowa  State  Teachers  Association, 

Proceedings,  65:53-65,  1919. 


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